She had told them Jared knew.
He didn’t.
She claimed the money had gone into investments.
Most of it was gone.
Vanessa had also missed payments on the luxury SUV she drove.
Her parents had quietly been covering those too.
Suddenly, Jared looked at his wife differently.
For years, both of them had lived as though someone else would always absorb the consequences.
Her parents.
Me.
Thomas.
Anyone except themselves.
Vanessa turned toward me.
“You caused this.”
I shook my head.
“I closed a gate. That’s all.”
And it was true.
I hadn’t exposed her financial secrets.
I hadn’t called her parents.
I hadn’t damaged their marriage.
I had simply stopped paying.
Stopped rescuing.
Stopped making consequences disappear.
Once I stepped away, everything they had hidden became visible.
Then I remembered something.
Thomas’s notebook.
There was a sealed section near the back that I hadn’t opened.
