Chapter 10 - Paige's Real Secret
When I confronted Paige, she didn’t deny taking money.
She cried.
Again.
But this time tears weren’t enough.
“You received payments from Derek for three years.”
“I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
We sat inside a conference room with Sarah and Detective Ortiz.
Paige looked exhausted.
“My younger brother had leukemia.”
The room went quiet.
“He needed treatment that insurance wouldn’t fully cover. Derek found out.”
“How?”
“I asked HR about hardship assistance.”
Paige swallowed.
“He offered to help personally.”
The first payment was forty thousand dollars.
Then another.
Then tuition assistance when Paige’s brother recovered.
Derek never called it a loan.
Until he needed favors.
Pick up medication.
Move documents.
Delete calendar entries.
Use executive access.
“He made you dependent,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Did you know about the financial fraud?”
“No.”
“The insurance policy?”
“No.”
“The soup?”
“No.”
Ortiz leaned forward.
“What did you know?”
Paige stared at the table.
“I knew he was tracking Renee.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“He asked me to send him copies of your travel schedule.”
“You already had those.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“When you booked private meetings.”
“With whom?”
“Lawyers.”
I looked at Sarah.
Paige had told Derek I was seeking legal advice.
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
That timing matched the continuity memo.
Medical leave.
He realized I might be preparing to leave.
The plan accelerated.
“What else?” Ortiz asked.
Paige hesitated.
“There was an app.”
“What app?”
“On Renee’s company phone.”
I felt sick.
Derek had ordered a “security update” installed months earlier.
Paige admitted it mirrored location data and some notifications to an executive-security dashboard.
That was how Derek knew when I visited the gas station.
Not what I bought.
But where I went.
He could have searched the location.
He could have connected it to my later symptoms.
The pregnancy test had confirmed it.
Every unexplained fact now had an explanation.
None made me feel better.
But Paige had one final piece of information.
“The thermos wasn’t the first plan.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“Three weeks earlier, Derek asked facilities whether the parking garage cameras covered your assigned space.”
“Why?”
“He said someone had damaged his car.”
“Was his car damaged?”
“No.”
Paige started crying harder.
“I think he was checking whether your car could be reached without being recorded.”
Detective Ortiz stood.
The investigation reopened every event from the previous months.
My tire blowout on Interstate 94.
I had called Derek afterward.
He told me I probably hit debris.
The repair shop had replaced the tire.
Nobody preserved it.
At the time, I thought it was bad luck.
Now police contacted the mechanic.
He remembered something.
May you like
The tire had not looked punctured by road debris.
The sidewall had been cut.
