Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Stopped
I stared at the woman who had saved my life just hours earlier. Dana’s sensible black jacket and neat bun were unchanged, but the compassionate stranger from the roadside was gone. Her eyes were locked onto the tarnished silver pocket watch in my trembling hand.
"Your husband?" I echoed, my voice barely above a whisper.
Megan immediately stood up, placing herself between my hospital bed and the door. "Who are you? The police said your name was Dana. You were just a witness."
"I am Dana," she said, stepping into the room and closing the door softly behind her. "Dana Vance."
The name hit me like a physical blow. Vance. The same name on the pawn receipt. The same name on the fraudulent loan on my father's house.
"Julian Vance is your husband," I said, the puzzle pieces violently snapping together.
Dana’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t cry. She looked exhausted, like a woman who had been running a marathon she never signed up for. "Julian was an independent loan officer. Six months ago, he started working with a developer who promised massive returns on off-market real estate. The developer told Julian they just needed short-term bridge loans to secure the properties."
"Eric," Megan said, disgust dripping from the word. "Eric is the developer."
Dana nodded slowly. "Eric told Julian that his father-in-law was a silent partner backing the deals. He brought in deeds, tax records, even forged signatures to prove the house was collateral. Julian pushed through three fraudulent loans totaling over half a million dollars before he realized the truth."
"He stole my grandmother's bracelet," I said, my voice hardening. "Eric pawned it under your husband's name."
"Because Julian threatened to go to the police," Dana explained, taking a tentative step forward. "Eric panicked. He forced Julian to pawn the bracelet to make it look like Julian was the one stealing assets. The pocket watch... it was Julian's grandfather's. Julian used it as collateral for a private, dangerous loan to try and cover the money Eric lost. Eric took it from him yesterday as a 'guarantee' that Julian would keep his mouth shut."
My mind spun. The sharp pains in my abdomen flared again, a warning sign I couldn't ignore. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my heart rate. "Why were you on that road today, Dana? That wasn't a coincidence, was it?"
Dana looked down at her shoes. "No. It wasn't. Julian has been missing for forty-eight hours. I tracked Eric's car this morning hoping he would lead me to my husband. When I saw him pull over and drag you out... I didn't know who you were. I just saw a pregnant woman being abused. I couldn't just keep driving."
A profound, terrifying silence settled over the room. Eric wasn't just a white-collar criminal; he was involved with people dangerous enough to make a man disappear. And he had deliberately pushed me out of a moving vehicle, leaving me stranded without a phone, to go handle his collapsing house of cards.
Suddenly, my cracked phone buzzed on the tray table. A notification from my home security app.
Front Door Ring Camera: Motion Detected.
Megan grabbed the phone and tapped the screen. The live feed loaded.
It wasn't my father. It wasn't Eric.
It was a man in a dark suit standing on the porch, holding a crowbar. He looked directly into the camera lens, reached into his pocket, and held up a familiar object.
It was Julian Vance's driver's license.
May you like
Then, the man raised the crowbar and smashed the camera. The screen went black.
"They're at the house," Megan gasped. "Dad is in there."
