Chapter 6 - The Fire at Rosewood Farm and the Woman Who Saved My Life
“Emily!”
We rushed toward the door.
Locked.
Smoke filled the room.
I grabbed the steel box.
Emily broke a window.
Cold air rushed in.
“Go!”
She climbed out.
I followed.
The farmhouse exploded behind us.
Flames shot through the roof.
I fell into the snow.
Emily grabbed my arm.
“Mom!”
We crawled away from the building.
A car sped from the road.
I saw only part of the license plate.
7KJ.
Emily had her phone out.
“I got a picture.”
“Call the police.”
She did.
Then she looked at me.
“Who knew we were here?”
I thought about it.
Thomas.
Brenda.
Our attorney.
Emily.
Me.
And Mark.
Minutes later, Detective Samuel Reed arrived.
He had handled financial fraud cases for years.
He looked at the burned farmhouse.
“This wasn't an accident.”
“I know.”
He examined the area.
“Do you know who owned the property?”
“My family.”
“Then we need to talk.”
At the station, Detective Reed reviewed the journal, the trust documents, and the recording.
“This could be massive.”
“It is.”
He looked at me.
“Do you believe your husband is involved in the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“Not yet.”
“Then we build the case.”
Meanwhile, Mark filed for divorce.
That should have shocked me.
It didn't.
The petition accused me of financial misconduct.
Me.
The woman who had managed Crestview's books for twenty-eight years.
It alleged I had diverted company funds.
It claimed I was unstable.
It sought exclusive control of our business.
The legal documents were full of lies.
But I knew why.
Mark wanted the first accusation on paper.
He wanted me defending myself before anyone investigated him.
Our attorney Evelyn Harper filed a response.
Then came the second attack.
A major investor announced it was pulling out of Crestview.
The stock value of the company's private holdings crashed.
Employees panicked.
Suppliers demanded payment.
Bank accounts were frozen.
Mark went on television.
He claimed I had been emotionally overwhelmed and was damaging the company.
I watched him from my daughter's apartment.
He looked convincing.
That was what he had always been good at.
Pretending.
Then Brenda appeared on the same program.
She sat down with a reporter.
“I have evidence.”
Mark tried to stop the interview.
He couldn't.
Brenda exposed the affair.
She admitted she had helped process questionable financial transfers.
She explained how Mark instructed her to alter internal records.
She provided copies of emails.
The public story changed immediately.
But then Brenda said the sentence that stunned everyone.
“Mark didn't create the scheme.”
The reporter asked,
“Who did?”
Brenda looked into the camera.
“David Ramsey.”
David disappeared that night.
His house was empty.
His accounts were wiped.
Police searched his office.
Nothing.
Then Detective Reed called.
“We found him.”
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
“Was he carrying anything?”
“Three passports.”
My stomach tightened.
“Is he cooperating?”
“No.”
Then Reed said,
“We found a handwritten list.”
“Of what?”
“Payments.”
“Names?”
“Your husband's name.”
My heart pounded.
“And another.”
“Whose?”
“Ofelia Whitmore.”
I closed my eyes.
The scheme was bigger than Mark.
Later that night, I received a package.
No return address.
Inside was an old hospital bracelet.
My mother's name.
I stared at it.
Underneath was a note.
Your mother didn't die where you were told.
I called Detective Reed.
He came immediately.
“We need to reopen her case.”
“What about the medical records?”
“They can be subpoenaed.”
The next day, we learned that the hospital record for my mother's final treatment had been altered.
Her listed diagnosis was wrong.
The attending physician had signed paperwork that he later denied writing.
And the doctor who treated her disappeared shortly afterward.
There was one name on the original paperwork.
Dr. Nathaniel Ross.
We tracked him to Arizona.
He agreed to speak.
When we met him, he looked old and tired.
“I wondered when someone would come.”
I sat across from him.
“Did my mother die naturally?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
My hands tightened.
“What happened?”
“She was poisoned.”
Emily covered her mouth.
“Who did it?”
“I don't know.”
“But you suspected someone.”
He looked at me.
“Your mother told me.”
“Who?”
“She said if anything happened to her, it would be Richard Cole.”
I felt numb.
“Why didn't you report him?”
“I tried.”
“Then?”
“They threatened my family.”
“Who?”
He looked away.
“Ofelia.”
The room went silent.
My mother-in-law had been part of this from the beginning.
But then Dr. Ross revealed something even more shocking.
“Your mother was not the only one they tried to poison.”
I stared.
“Who else?”
“Your father.”
My father had survived.
But he had been weakened for years.
That explained why he died so suddenly.
Not a natural death.
A long campaign.
Against my parents.
Against me.
And against everything they had tried to leave me.
Before we left, Dr. Ross gave me a small envelope.
“Your mother left this.”
Inside was a photograph.
My mother standing beside a young Brenda's mother.
And beside them...
Mark.
He was younger.
Much younger.
But unmistakable.
The date was three years before my wedding.
I looked at Emily.
“Dad knew her family before I ever met him.”
Emily whispered,
“Mom…”
“What?”
“The photograph is taken outside a courthouse.”
“Why?”
Emily flipped it over.
May you like
There was one line handwritten on the back.
THE FIRST LIE WAS THE MARRIAGE.
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