Megan opened a folder on the phone.
Screenshots. Bank records. Photos of Ryan entering Claire’s office building. Copies of IDs with different names. Messages from three women I had never met, each telling a version of the same nightmare.
Engagement.
Marriage.
Money gone.
Husband vanished.
One woman had lost her inheritance. Another had nearly lost her mother’s house. A third had been blamed for fraud until she proved her signature was forged.
Claire had collected everything.
“She came to me two days before the wedding,” Megan said. “She was scared. She said if anything happened to her, I had to wait one week. She wanted Ryan to feel safe enough to make his next move.”
“My next move?” I whispered.
Megan nodded toward my purse.
“Check your accounts.”
My hands shook as I opened my banking app.
There it was.
A pending transfer from the savings account my grandmother had left me.
Thirty-eight thousand dollars.
Scheduled for midnight.
Destination: an account I did not recognize.
My wedding ring suddenly felt heavy on my finger.
