Chapter 5 - The Web of Deceit
The silence on the porch of Unit 742 was so absolute that the low hum of the neighborhood’s irrigation timer sounded like an alarm bell.
Derek’s face went through four distinct transformations in six seconds: shock, terror, calculation, and finally, the familiar, aggressive mask of a cornered narcissist looking for an angle.
He pulled his arm completely off Taryn’s shoulder, taking a step backward toward the threshold as if he could physically retreat into the house. "Bethany. Eliza. This... this isn't what it looks like."
"What does it look like, Dad?" Marley’s voice was barely a whisper, but it sliced through the cold morning air like a cleaver.
Her fifteen-year-old face was gray, the color having drained entirely from her cheeks, leaving two bright, burning spots of red beneath her eyes. Her fingers trembled so violently that her phone slipped from her grip, clattering against the concrete driveway, the screen cracking in a fine web of glass. She didn't look down at it. She was staring at the space-gray laptop in the other girl's hands.
The upgraded processor so I can run the Adobe editing suite.
Those were the exact words Marley had used three weeks ago at our dining room table in Point Loma, her eyes shining as she showed Derek the website.
"Chloe, honey, go inside," Taryn said, her voice tight, sharp, and frantic. She grabbed her daughter’s forearm, pulling the bewildered teenager backward into the foyer. "Go inside right now and take the computer."
"No," Bethany said, her voice dropping into a register that made the girl freeze. "Leave the computer on the porch, Chloe. That machine was purchased with money stolen from my children’s college trust."
"That is a lie!" Derek roared, stepping forward onto the top step, his chest heaving beneath the green sweater. "Don't you dare come to this private property and harass these people on Christmas Day, Bethany! You’re out of your mind!"
He looked at me, his eyes flaring with pure, unadulterated venom. "You did this. You tracked my car? You dragged my kids thirty miles on Christmas morning to create a scene because you’re jealous of a business arrangement?"
"A business arrangement?" I asked, stepping beside Bethany. My voice was calm, conversational, stripped of all theatrics. "Is that what we're calling a six-month residential lease for forty-six hundred dollars a month, Derek? Is that why you wired eighteen thousand five hundred dollars from our joint emergency account under a fraudulent invoice for roof repairs?"
Taryn’s head whipped toward Derek, her honey-blonde waves snapping around her face. "What did she just say? What wire transfer?"
Derek held up both hands, palms out, his voice dropping into that smooth, pleading cadence he had used on me a hundred times in our bedroom. "Taryn, babe, listen to me. Eliza is unstable. She’s been auditing my consulting business because she wants to force me into a corporate buyout. I told you she was vindictive—"
"I am his wife, Taryn," I said, looking directly at the other woman.
Taryn blinked, her mouth falling open. "His... his what?"
"His wife," Bethany repeated with a bitter, jagged laugh. "They were married seven months ago in Coronado. Full legal ceremony. Community property state. Which means half of everything he just used to furnish your little love nest belongs to her, and the rest belongs to the child support arrears he owes to me."
Taryn’s face drained of color until she looked like salt. She stepped two full paces away from Derek, her eyes darting between him and the three of us on the driveway.
"You told me the divorce was finalized in October," Taryn whispered, her voice trembling with rising hysteria. "You told me you were living in a rental in Point Loma while your lawyers settled the final property distribution! You told me the woman living in the house was your sister who was helping with the kids!"
"A sister?" Bethany gasped, turning her head toward me with an incredulous, horrified smirk. "He told her you were his sister?"
"That explains why he didn't want me on the Zoom calls," I remarked dryly.
Marley took two staggering steps forward, stopping at the base of the porch steps. She looked at the green sweater on her father’s chest—the one I had wrapped with gold ribbon that morning—then up at his sweating, frantic face.
"You told me Eliza was cheap," Marley choked out, her chest hitching with sudden, ragged sobs. "You told me she hated us. You told me she took your credit cards so you couldn't buy me the computer for film school!"
Derek reached down toward her, his face twisting into an agonizing parody of paternal devotion. "Marley, baby, listen to Daddy. You don't understand the adult situation. Eliza was controlling—"
"You made me throw her presents in the garbage!" Marley screamed, the sound tearing from her throat with the raw, apocalyptic agony of a child realizing the person she worshipped was a monster. "You made me film it! You stood in the doorway and watched me make June cry!"
Down the street, a neighbor walked out to retrieve their morning paper, pausing on their lawn to stare at the screaming teenager on Unit 742’s driveway.
"Marley, stop it!" Derek hissed, his eyes darting toward the street, his suburban respectability cracking under the public glare. "Lower your voice! Get back in your mother’s car right now!"
"Don't you dare give her an order," Bethany snarled, stepping between Derek and her daughter, her finger driving into the center of his chest with enough force to make him stumble back against the porch railing. "You are finished, Derek. You are completely, utterly finished."
Bethany turned to Taryn, who was standing against the front door with her hand over her mouth, trembling.
"Keep the laptop, Taryn," Bethany said with chilling precision. "Keep the townhome. Keep the lease. Because tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, my forensic accountants are filing an emergency motion for full contempt in San Diego County Superior Court, and Eliza’s maritime attorneys will be freezing every single corporate asset registered to Pacific Horizon Marine Consulting."
May you like
Bethany looked at Derek one last time, her eyes dead and cold as winter gravel.
"Have a wonderful Christmas with your new family, Derek. You’re going to need to enjoy it, because by New Year's Eve, you won't have enough money left to buy a sandwich at a gas station."
