Chapter 2 - The Man in the Rain
Arthur Vance did not move for several seconds.
Rain hammered the roof of the white SUV while water ran from the shoulders of his dark coat. The taxi driver behind him quietly rolled up his window, apparently realizing he had delivered his passenger into something far more complicated than a stranded-car pickup.
Eleanor stood beside the rear door.
Her dress was crooked.
Her lipstick was smeared.
Ivan, the tattooed man standing ten feet away, had managed to pull on his shirt, but he had buttoned it wrong.
Arthur looked at him.
Then at Eleanor.
Then at the luxury watch box lying in the mud.
Nobody spoke.
I stood beneath the broken awning of the abandoned strip mall with my arms crossed.
Eleanor saw me first.
The color left her face.
“Ximena.”
Arthur turned.
His expression changed immediately.
“What are you doing here?”
Before I could answer, Eleanor rushed forward.
“She followed me!”
I almost laughed.
Arthur looked from his wife to me.
“Followed you?”
“This is not what it looks like.”
Eleanor’s voice rose above the rain.
Ivan backed toward the SUV.
Arthur noticed.
“You.”
Ivan stopped.
Arthur had spent nearly thirty years on the bench before retiring. He was seventy now, but when he used that tone, he still sounded like a man accustomed to making entire courtrooms fall silent.
“What is your name?”
Ivan swallowed.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Eleanor grabbed Arthur’s arm.
“Arthur, please. We should go home.”
He pulled away from her.
For the first time since I had married Marcus, I saw Eleanor look frightened of her husband.
Not annoyed.
Not embarrassed.
Frightened.
Ivan bent down and picked up the watch box.
Something slipped from beneath it.
A folded receipt.
Arthur saw it.
So did I.
He reached it before Ivan could.
The rain had soaked the edges, but the print was still visible.
Arthur read the name.
Ivan Petrov.
Then he read the price.
$47,900.
His eyes slowly lifted.
“Did you buy this?”
Eleanor opened her mouth.
I answered.
“It came out of an account I funded.”
Arthur turned toward me.
I told him about the $180,000 transfer.
Not everything.
Just enough.
The money leaving our family account.
The jewelry-store transaction.
The personal account.
The SUV.
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“Marcus knows?”
“I haven’t asked him yet.”
That was technically true.
Arthur turned toward Eleanor.
“Where did the rest of the money go?”
She gave a shaky laugh.
“What money?”
“Do not insult me.”
“Arthur—”
“One hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Ivan started walking away.
“Stop.”
Arthur’s voice cut through the rain.
Ivan stopped again.
But this time he smiled.
It was a small smile.
Almost amused.
“You people need to deal with your family problems without me.”
He turned.
Eleanor panicked.
“Ivan!”
That one word changed everything.
Not because she knew his name.
Because of the desperation in her voice.
Ivan looked over his shoulder.
Arthur stared at his wife.
“You don’t want him to leave.”
Eleanor seemed to realize her mistake.
“It’s complicated.”
I stepped closer.
“Then simplify it.”
She glared at me.
“If you had been a proper wife, none of this would have happened.”
There it was.
Even standing in a muddy parking lot after being caught with another man, Eleanor somehow found a way to make me responsible.
Arthur looked at her as if he no longer recognized the woman beside him.
“What does Ximena’s marriage have to do with this?”
Eleanor said nothing.
Ivan did.
“More than you think.”
My stomach tightened.
Arthur’s attention snapped toward him.
“What does that mean?”
Ivan glanced at Eleanor.
She shook her head.
Very slightly.
He noticed.
So did I.
Then Ivan laughed.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
Arthur took one step toward him.
“Know what?”
Ivan lifted both hands.
“I was paid to keep quiet. I plan on honoring the arrangement.”
“Paid by whom?”
He looked at me.
Not Eleanor.
Me.
And suddenly the $180,000 no longer felt like the price of an affair.
It felt like hush money.
Before I could question him, headlights appeared at the entrance of the lot.
A black sedan accelerated across the gravel.
I recognized it immediately.
Marcus.
My husband slammed his car door and ran through the rain.
“Mom!”
Not me.
Not his father.
His mother.
Eleanor rushed toward him.
“Marcus, thank God.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
“You knew she was here?”
Marcus stopped.
His eyes moved to Ivan.
Then to the muddy receipt in his father’s hand.
Then to me.
For half a second, fear flashed across his face.
And that told me more than any answer could.
“What did you do, Ximena?”
I almost admired the speed of it.
He had arrived at a scene where his mother had been caught half-dressed with another man, yet somehow I was the criminal.
“I followed a bank transfer.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“You went through my accounts?”
“My money was in those accounts.”
“You had no right—”
Arthur exploded.
“No right?”
Marcus went silent.
Arthur held up the receipt.
“Your mother has apparently been spending money that belongs to your wife on another man.”
Marcus stared at Eleanor.
“Mom?”
She began crying.
Real tears.
Or very convincing ones.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
Arthur’s shoulders sagged.
For one moment, I thought the truth had finally broken her.
Then she said something that made Marcus go completely still.
“I was trying to protect our son.”
Arthur stared at her.
“From what?”
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Marcus stepped forward.
“Mom. Don’t.”
Arthur turned slowly toward him.
“Don’t what?”
Marcus’s eyes met mine.
There was no anger in them now.
Only calculation.
That was when I understood.
Whatever Eleanor had been hiding...
Marcus already knew.
Arthur looked between them.
“I asked a question.”
Eleanor whispered, “Ivan has been threatening us.”
Ivan laughed again.
“Careful.”
She ignored him.
“He knows things about Marcus. Things that could destroy this family.”
Arthur’s face became rigid.
“What things?”
Marcus grabbed Eleanor’s wrist.
“We’re leaving.”
Arthur stepped between them and the car.
“No one is leaving.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Dad.”
“No.”
For the first time in five years, Marcus looked small in front of his father.
Arthur pointed at Ivan.
“You are going to tell me why my wife transferred money to this man.”
Ivan wiped rain from his face.
“I never said she transferred it to me.”
Silence.
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“What?”
Ivan nodded toward Marcus.
“Ask your husband where the money really went.”
Marcus lunged.
Ivan moved faster.
He stepped backward and pulled a phone from his pocket.
“If you touch me, I send everything.”
Marcus froze.
Everything.
Arthur heard it too.
“What do you have?”
Ivan smiled.
“Insurance.”
Marcus’s breathing changed.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Ivan.”
“Wrong tone.”
Eleanor started crying harder.
Arthur looked at her.
“You slept with a man blackmailing our son?”
Ivan’s expression shifted.
“That’s not exactly what happened.”
Then he looked directly at me.
“Mrs. Vance, you seem smarter than the rest of them.”
Marcus shouted, “Shut up!”
Ivan ignored him.
“You want to know why $180,000 disappeared?”
“Yes.”
His next words landed harder than the rain.
“Because your husband has been moving your money for almost three years.”
I stared at Marcus.
Ivan continued.
“The jewelry store was just one stop.”
Marcus took another step.
Ivan held up the phone.
“Three years of transfers. Shell companies. Fake invoices. Properties.”
My pulse began pounding.
“How much?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Marcus.
“How much of my money?”
His face told me not to ask.
So I asked again.
“How much, Marcus?”
Ivan answered for him.
“Last time I counted?”
May you like
He smiled.
“Just over four million dollars.”
