Alex let out a long breath, removed his glasses, rubbed his tired eyes, and said there was simply no reason to rush home. His wife had died of a fast-moving illness a couple of years earlier, and their only daughter was away at college in another city. He said that when he went back to his apartment, all that greeted him was a dark TV screen and a hungry orange cat.
Being around people in the office, he admitted, helped fill the silence a little. He said it plainly, without fishing for sympathy. Natalie lowered her eyes. Living under the same roof as a man she believed had killed her sister, she understood all too well what dead silence inside a home could feel like.
Meanwhile, her own plan was taking shape with careful precision. If she was going to bring Greg down, she needed to move slowly and get every step right. One of the most important questions was the legal status of their upscale condo in a prime part of town.
On paper, the property was in Natalie’s name. Early in the marriage, she had taken that as a sign of Greg’s generosity. Now she understood the real reason: he didn’t want expensive assets tied directly to him for tax purposes. She made an appointment with a sharp young attorney named Anna and paid for a consultation out of her small cash stash.
After reviewing the paperwork, Anna confirmed that the condo legally belonged to Natalie alone. It had been purchased with money Natalie had inherited from her late mother, which made the ownership easy to prove. Before they parted, Anna strongly advised her to hire an aggressive divorce lawyer in case Greg tried to challenge it in court.
Vera and Gail helped her find one. The second step in Natalie’s plan was closing out their joint checking account, which had been opened years earlier. Greg kept most of his real money elsewhere, in places she couldn’t see, but there was still a decent amount in that account for household expenses.
On an ordinary weekday, Natalie went to the bank and withdrew most of it, leaving just enough not to draw immediate attention. She moved the cash into a new account at another bank under her maiden name. The third step was the one that frightened her most: contacting the powerful man Greg had been stealing from.
Russell Taggert turned out to be exactly what she expected—wealthy, connected, and not someone people crossed lightly. His office number was easy enough to find online. Gathering her nerve, Natalie called from the prepaid phone. When Russell finally came on the line, she told him in a steady voice that his trusted partner Greg was stealing from him right now…
