Chapter 5 - The Missing Board
I searched behind the furnace twice.
Nothing.
The manila folder was gone too.
Either Jessica had realized what she had left behind, or someone had seen me reading it.
I went upstairs slowly.
Matthew was watching television. Jessica was in my kitchen, cutting strawberries as though she had never written a four-phase plan to take control of my life.
“Lose something?” she asked.
The knife kept moving.
Slice. Slice. Slice.
“No.”
“Good.”
She smiled without looking at me.
That was when I knew.
She suspected.
Maybe she did not know what I had photographed, but she knew the board had been exposed.
The game changed after that.
The next day, the Wi-Fi password stopped working on my laptop.
Matthew claimed the router had reset.
My online banking password suddenly failed too.
That was not the router.
I called the bank from my car. Someone had attempted three password resets using my email address and the last four digits of my Social Security number.
The bank froze online access and required me to appear in person.
I drove straight there.
At the branch, the manager, a patient woman named Denise, pulled up my profile.
“Mrs. Hale, there's something else you should see.”
Two days earlier, a request had been submitted to add Matthew as a joint owner to my checking account.
“Was it approved?”
“No. The signature verification failed.”
“Who submitted it?”
She turned the monitor slightly.
The request listed Matthew's email.
My stomach dropped.
I wanted to believe Jessica had used his information.
Then Denise showed me the attached identification image.
Matthew's driver's license.
He was not just standing behind his wife anymore.
He had stepped into the plan.
I drove home with my hands tight around the steering wheel.
In the driveway, I saw a white sedan I did not recognize.
A woman in a navy suit sat at my dining room table with Jessica and Matthew.
I entered through the front door.
Jessica stood immediately.
“Oh, good. You're home.”
The stranger smiled.
“Mrs. Hale, I'm Caroline Mercer. I specialize in senior transitions.”
I set my purse down.
“What is a senior transition?”
Caroline opened a glossy brochure.
“Helping families choose the right level of care before a crisis.”
Jessica touched my shoulder.
“We thought it would be good for you to see the place on Friday.”
I looked at the brochure.
It was for an assisted-living facility forty miles away.
May you like
And clipped to the back was a reservation form with my name already typed on it.
They Moved Into My House While I Was Away - Then I Found Their Plan for Me
