“You.”
The woman in the suit stood up and extended her hand.
“Detective Miller. Don’t worry, you’re here as a witness.”
For the next two hours, Ellie recounted everything from the beginning. About the documents she found, her suspicions, her mother-in-law’s threats, the setup with Samuels. The investigators listened, took notes, and asked clarifying questions. Their faces were unreadable.
“Thank you,” Detective Miller said when Ellie finished. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“What happens now?”
“Now we conduct a full investigation. We’ll question everyone involved. And then we’ll decide whether to press charges.”
“And Susan, does she know?”
“Not yet. But she will soon.”
The arrest happened that same day. Ellie wasn’t there; she heard about it from Mike. He called around five in the evening, his voice hollow and tired.
“They took her,” he said. “Right from the office. In front of everyone.”
“Mike, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He paused. “She deserved it. I… I understand that now. But it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“I know.”
“She didn’t even look at me when they were leading her away. Just walked past me like I was a stranger.”
Ellie didn’t know what to say. She pictured the scene: her mother-in-law in handcuffs, walking between two police officers, her son standing by—and her heart ached. She hated this woman for everything she had done to her, to their marriage, to the company. But seeing Mike suffer was unbearable.
“Come home,” she said. “I’m waiting for you.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
He arrived an hour later. He walked in, didn’t take off his jacket, sat on the couch, and stared at the wall. Ellie sat next to him and took his hand.
“Do you want to talk?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Probably not. Not right now.”
“Okay, then we’ll just sit.”
They sat in silence until it got dark outside. Ellie didn’t let go of his hand, and he held hers back, tightly, as if it were the only anchor in his crumbling world.
The following days blurred into one long nightmare. The news of the arrest of Summit Construction’s Head of Accounting spread through the city like wildfire. Reporters camped out at the office, called Mike and Ellie’s home, tried to catch them at their front door.
“Son of Arrested CFO Works at Same Company!” the headlines screamed. “Family Business or Family Crime?”
Mike took a leave of absence. He couldn’t show his face at work. Every glance, every whisper behind his back cut him to the quick. Ellie wanted to do the same, but the CEO asked her to stay.
“The company needs you,” Mr. Henderson said. “Especially now. Someone has to clean up the mess she made.”
So Ellie stayed. She worked twelve-hour days, unraveling the complex web of fraudulent schemes. The deeper she dug, the more horrifying it became. The initial two and a half million turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. The real amount exceeded four million dollars. The money had been funneled to accounts in various banks, with some of it going overseas. Susan had been preparing for a comfortable retirement. And, by all appearances, for a quick getaway.
“If you hadn’t intervened,” Detective Miller told her during another interview, “she would have been gone in six months. She had already bought a house in Costa Rica.”
“Costa Rica?” Ellie couldn’t believe her ears.
“Yes, registered to a front, but we found the paperwork.”
She told Mike about it that evening. He listened in silence, staring into space.
“She was going to leave me,” he finally said. “Just leave, without a word.”
“Mike…”
“All my life, she told me I was the most important thing to her, that she lived for me. But in reality…” he gave a bitter laugh. “In reality, I was just cover, a convenient screen for respectability.”
Ellie sat next to him and put her arms around him.
“You’re not to blame for who she turned out to be.”
“But I should have seen it. I should have understood sooner.”
“We only see what we want to see. It’s human nature.”
Mike closed his eyes.
“She called today from jail.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked me to hire a lawyer, a good, expensive one. Said it was all a mistake, that she was framed.”
“And what did you say?”
“That I’d find a lawyer. Not because I believe her, but because everyone has the right to a defense.”
Ellie nodded silently. She understood him and respected his decision, even though a part of her wanted his mother to rot in a cell without any defense at all.
“She asked about you,” Mike added. “Said it was all your fault, that you framed her.”
“Not surprising.”
“I hung up.”
Ellie held him tighter.
“I’m proud of you.”
“Nothing to be proud of. I was blind for too long.”
“But now you can see. That’s what matters.”
The trial was set for three months later. A lot changed in that time. Mike went back to work. His colleagues, who had initially eyed him with suspicion, gradually warmed up to him. Mr. Henderson personally defended him. “He is not his mother,” the CEO told anyone who would listen. “And he deserves a chance to prove it.”
Ellie got a promotion. She was now the Senior Accountant—the very position her mother-in-law used to hold. The irony was not lost on her.
“You’ll do great,” Kate said when she heard the news. “You were always smarter than her. You just never had the chance to show it.”
Her relationship with Mike changed too. It became deeper, more honest. The wall that had grown between them—a wall of mistrust and doubt—had crumbled. In its place, something new and stronger had emerged.
“I want us to have kids,” Mike said one evening. They were sitting in the kitchen, drinking tea, watching the first snow fall outside.
Ellie froze with her cup in her hands.
“What?”
“Kids.” He looked into her eyes. “I want a family. A real family. With you.”
“Mike, are you sure? After everything that’s happened?”
“That’s exactly why.” He took her hand. “I’ve realized something over these past few months. Family isn’t about blood. Family is about the people we choose, the people we trust, the people we love. You are my family, Ellie. You’re the one. And I want that family to get bigger.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but they were tears of happiness.
“Yes,” she whispered, “yes, I want that too.”
He hugged her, and she felt his lips touch the top of her head.
“Thank you,” he said. “For everything. For not giving up. For fighting. For waiting for me to see the light. I love you.”
“I love you too. More than life itself.”
But before the trial, Susan made one last attempt. She requested a visit from Mike at the county jail. He didn’t want to go, but Ellie insisted.
“You need to close this chapter,” she said. “Once and for all. Talk to her, listen, and let go.”
Comments are closed.