Chapter 4

Every year before New Year, I went through our household finances, so that night I opened my banking app and started looking back through the records.

I couldn't access the accounts under Edward's name, but I could see my own records and our joint credit card statements, so I began going through the transactions month by month.

In March 2021, there was a transfer of 12,700 dollars labeled company business, followed two months later by a 9,000-dollar charge at a luxury mall.

I remembered that month because Edward had told me he'd taken a client out to dinner.

Then, in January 2022, there was a cash withdrawal of 17,000 dollars with no explanation attached.

After New Year's that year, I'd noticed our savings were about 20,000 dollars lower than I'd expected. When I asked Edward about it, he claimed he'd spent the money on year-end gifts for senior management.

"Twenty thousand dollars? What kind of gift costs that much?" I asked.

"You wouldn't understand."

And because I trusted him, I stopped asking. I hadn't understood then, but I was beginning to now.

*****

The next day, I called Amanda King, one of Mom's closest former coworkers. They'd spent 20 years together at the textile mill, and after Mom died, Amanda still messaged me every year on the anniversary of her death.

I didn't ask about the jewelry directly.

"Amanda, did Mom ever tell you how much she spent on all those pieces over the years?" I asked.

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"Your mom recorded everything she bought. She once told me the jewelry came to around 250,000 dollars, cheap early on, pricier later. But that was the purchase price. She had a good eye, bought only quality, so it's worth several times that now."

"Thank you, Amanda."

"Kate, did something happen?"

"No. I was thinking about Mom."

After we hung up, I sat there thinking about Mom's 31 years at the textile mill and the 250,000 dollars she'd managed to save for those pieces over a lifetime. Today, they were worth several times what she'd paid.

The jewelry I'd already traced was worth close to 1.32 million dollars, and I still hadn't found where at least two pieces had gone.

One point three two million dollars.

I sat at my desk staring at nothing until a coworker passing by stopped beside me.

"Kathy, you don't look well," she said.

"I'm fine."

But one memory wouldn't leave me alone: the time Edward had stopped me from getting Mom's tourmaline ring appraised.

It had been the previous winter. I'd mentioned checking its current value in case we ever decided to move and needed extra money, but Edward shut the idea down immediately.

"How could you sell something your mom left you? How could you do that to her?" he snapped.

He'd looked so serious that I'd actually been touched. For all the times he complained about me clinging to old things, I'd thought that when it mattered, there were still lines he wouldn't cross.

Now I knew why he'd stopped me. It had nothing to do with respecting Mom. He'd already replaced the ring and sold the original for 27,000 dollars.

If I'd taken the fake in for an appraisal, his entire scheme would've been exposed on the spot. He hadn't been protecting Mom's memory. He'd been protecting himself.

The same man who'd asked how I could do that to her had stolen her belongings one by one, sold them, and spent the money on another woman.

Then he'd looked me in the eye and questioned whether I could face my own mother.

I set my phone down on the desk.

Beside it stood our framed wedding photo. I looked at Edward's face for a moment, then turned the frame face down.

*****

For the next week, I made sure nothing about my routine changed. I went to work, came home, cooked dinner, and carried on exactly as I always had.

Edward didn't notice anything.

He came home late, blamed overtime, ate whatever I cooked, watched television until 11, and announced that he was going to bed as though our marriage hadn't changed at all.

After 11 years together, I knew his routines well enough to make mine look completely normal too. As far as Edward was concerned, nothing was wrong.

Behind the scenes, however, I was tracing the tourmaline ring and the emerald signet ring.

The pawn shops had no record of the tourmaline ring, so I widened my search to nearby cities.

Three days later, I found it at Hartley Jewelry Consignment in the next city.

Edward had consigned it there two years earlier, and it had sold for 27,000 dollars.

The emerald signet ring took another two days to trace, but I eventually found it on BidHouse, where it had sold 18 months earlier through an account linked to Edward's phone number.

The final price was 37,000 dollars.

Once I had everything, I put the results together on a single sheet of paper.

The emerald bangle was worth 285,000 dollars and had ended up with Chloe.

The emerald pendant, worth 140,000 dollars, had been pawned three years earlier.

The ruby necklace, worth 560,000 dollars, had been bought by Chloe, while the 255,000-dollar diamond earrings had been pawned on the anniversary of Mom's death.

The tourmaline ring had sold through Hartley Jewelry Consignment for 27,000 dollars, and the emerald signet ring had brought 37,000 dollars on BidHouse.

The pearl brooch, worth around 17,000 dollars, was still unaccounted for, although the appraisal had already confirmed that the one in my safe was fake.

The emerald bangle, worth 285,000 dollars, had been found on Chloe and was now in police custody.

And that still didn't account for whatever else Edward might have spent on Chloe.

I could've added up the total, but I chose not to. I didn't want that number yet. The final amount was ammunition, and ammunition was something you saved until it was time to fight.