Chapter 13 - The Ring on the TableDerek finally understood why Skylar left it
Derek's attorney requested a meeting.
Skylar almost refused.
Then she agreed.
Not alone.
Mara sat beside her.
Alvarez watched from behind the glass.
Derek entered in handcuffs.
For the first time in nine years, Skylar saw something she had never seen before.
Fear.
Real fear.
Derek sat across from her.
“You look different.”
Skylar touched the healing skin on her cheek.
“So do you.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I never wanted it to happen.”
“You threw the coffee.”
“I was angry.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I was desperate.”
“You tampered with my car.”
He froze.
“I didn't.”
“Your sister confessed.”
“She lied.”
“Laura testified.”
His face changed.
Skylar leaned forward.
“You lost.”
Derek swallowed.
“There's still a way out.”
She laughed.
“You're offering me a deal?”
“No.”
He stared at her.
“I'm warning you.”
“About what?”
“You don't understand Victor.”
Skylar remained silent.
“He'll come after you.”
“Victor is cooperating.”
“For now.”
Derek's eyes flickered.
“People like him don't cooperate.”
“Neither do people like you.”
Silence.
Then Derek reached toward the table.
The officer stopped him.
He pulled back.
“I kept your ring.”
Skylar frowned.
“My wedding ring?”
“The one you left.”
“It isn't yours.”
“I know.”
“Then why keep it?”
Derek stared at her.
“Because I thought you'd come back.”
Skylar said nothing.
He continued.
“You always came back.”
That sentence hurt more than any insult.
Because it was true.
Until now.
Derek's voice cracked.
“When I saw it on the table, I thought it was a message.”
“It was.”
“You wanted me to understand.”
“I wanted myself to understand.”
“What?”
“That the marriage was over.”
He stared at her.
“You really mean that.”
“Yes.”
Derek leaned back.
For the first time, he looked like a stranger.
Then Skylar noticed something.
His wedding band.
It wasn't on his finger.
“Where is your ring?”
He looked down.
“I sold it.”
Skylar almost smiled.
“Of course you did.”
Derek's expression hardened.
“You think this is over.”
“I know it is.”
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“You don't know what I know.”
Mara sat upright.
“Conversation over.”
But Derek continued.
“There is another account.”
Skylar looked at him.
“Where?”
“Not Suzanne's.”
“Whose?”
Derek smiled faintly.
“Yours.”
Skylar's pulse jumped.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“You'll see.”
He stood.
Before the guards took him away, he said:
“Check the account you opened with your grandmother.”
Skylar froze.
She had almost forgotten it.
A savings account opened when she was twenty-one.
She hadn't used it in years.
Derek smiled.
“Ask yourself why I knew about it.”
Then he was gone.
Skylar looked at Mara.
“Can you find it?”
Mara nodded.
Hours later, they accessed the dormant account.
Balance:
$0.
Skylar frowned.
“It's empty.”
“Wait.”
Mara opened the account history.
There were no withdrawals.
No transfers.
No activity.
Then she found one line.
A deposit made twenty-two years earlier.
$15.
Description:
TRUST
Skylar stared.
“What does that mean?”
Mara zoomed in.
The deposit had been made by Skylar's grandmother.
But beneath the description was a second code.
B-1147.
Skylar felt a chill.
“That's not a bank code.”
“No.”
She whispered:
“It's a storage reference.”
Mara looked at her.
“For what?”
Skylar suddenly remembered her grandmother's old sayings.
One in particular.
Whenever Skylar was young, her grandmother would say:
“Never keep your most valuable thing where everyone expects to find it.”
Skylar looked at the wedding ring sitting inside an evidence bag.
Then she understood.
The ring wasn't valuable because it was jewelry.
May you like
It was valuable because her grandmother had used it to hide a clue.
And Derek had no idea what the clue meant.
