Chapter 10 - The Trap Closes
Three weeks after my deployment.
That meant Sarah and Derek hadn't just stumbled into an affair while I was gone. They had planned this sabotage almost from the moment my boots touched foreign soil. The affair, the financial draining, the betrayal of my home—it was all part of a premeditated scheme designed to strip me of everything while I was away fighting for my country.
“Is this document still on file in our archive?” I asked, keeping my voice remarkably steady.
“Yes, sir,” Mrs. Gable replied, tapping her keyboard again. “I can print a certified copy for you right now, along with the surveillance footage from the teller window on the day it was filed.”
“Do it,” I said. “Print everything. And flag my account as frozen under emergency military deployment fraud protection immediately.”
Ten minutes later, I walked out of the bank with a thick manila envelope tucked under my arm. Inside were the certified bank records, the fraudulent power of attorney document bearing Sarah’s forged authorization signatures, and a flash drive containing HD security footage of my wife and my brother laughing together at the bank teller counter while I was dodging bullets overseas.
As I climbed into my truck, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was an unknown number.
I slid to answer and pressed the phone to my ear.
“Mark?” a shaky, desperate voice whispered on the other end. It was Sarah.
“You have some nerve calling me,” I said coldly.
“Mark, please... you have to listen to me,” she sobbed, panic choking her words. “Derek... Derek took the money and ran. He cleaned out the LLC account this morning and disappeared. He... he used me, Mark! He lied to me!”
I stared out the windshield at the bustling downtown street, a cold, humorless smile touching the corners of my lips.
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“Enjoy the fall, Sarah,” I whispered into the phone. “Because the trap you and Derek built just snapped shut.”
I hung up the phone, tossed it onto the passenger seat, and put the truck in gear. The war at home was just beginning—and I was finally holding all the cards.
