Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING
The police increased security around Evelyn.
But Marcus Voss disappeared.
His gyms closed.
His phone went dead.
Dustin stopped answering calls.
Ray Calder claimed he knew nothing.
For forty-eight hours, everything was silent.
Then a woman walked into the hospital.
She introduced herself as Natalie Brooks.
She was Dustin's former girlfriend.
“I need to talk to Evelyn.”
Detective Bennett didn't let her into the room immediately.
“Why?”
Natalie looked exhausted.
“Because I know what Marcus Voss is doing.”
That changed everything.
She told us she had dated Dustin for almost two years before Evelyn.
“He wasn't violent at first.”
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“Marcus.”
She described the same pattern.
Control.
Threats.
Isolation.
Money.
Fear.
Then she said something that made Evelyn sit upright.
“Dustin didn't choose you.”
“What?”
“Marcus chose you.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“Why me?”
“Because your father was the reason.”
I felt the room go silent.
“My father?”
Natalie nodded.
“Marcus spent years trying to find out what your father did in the military.”
Eleanor looked at me.
I said nothing.
Natalie continued.
“Dustin was told to marry you. Get close to your family. Learn what he could.”
Evelyn began crying.
“No.”
Natalie reached into her purse.
She pulled out a small flash drive.
“I kept this because I knew one day I'd need proof.”
Detective Bennett took it.
The files contained financial records, messages, photographs, and names.
One folder was labeled:
MERCER
I stared at it.
Inside were documents about my military career.
Not official records.
Private intelligence reports.
Names of people I'd trained.
Operations I'd participated in.
Places I'd been.
Someone had been digging into my past for years.
Then Detective Bennett found something else.
A transfer of money.
From a company controlled by Marcus Voss.
To Dustin.
Monthly.
For three years.
The exact length of Dustin's marriage to Evelyn.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“He was paid to marry me?”
Natalie nodded.
“I think so.”
The room became painfully quiet.
I looked at my daughter.
“I'm sorry.”
She shook her head.
“You didn't do this.”
“No.”
I looked at the files.
“But someone did.”
That night, we moved Evelyn to a secure location.
Detective Bennett told us not to tell anyone where.
For the first time in weeks, Evelyn slept without checking the door.
But at 2:13 a.m., my phone rang.
Harper.
“You have a bigger problem.”
“What?”
“Marcus isn't running.”
“Then where is he?”
“With someone who has been looking for you.”
“Who?”
Harper hesitated.
Then he said a name.
“General Adrian Cole.”
I hadn't heard that name in twenty years.
And when I did, I remembered something I had tried very hard to forget.
A mission.
May you like
A betrayal.
And a man who had sworn that one day he'd make me pay.
