Chapter 17 - What Happened to Marcus
Marcus Bell came to my sister’s house the next morning.
He looked like a man who hadn’t slept in years.
Not one night.
Years.
Rollins had already contacted him.
Marcus sat across from me and rubbed his hands together.
“When Simone and I divorced, I lost my business.”
I frowned.
“You told me you closed it.”
“I did. Because I was drowning.”
He looked toward the hallway where Caleb and Zoe were sleeping.
“I had a landscaping company. Small, but good. Then accounts started failing. Vendors said payments bounced. A loan showed up that I didn’t remember taking.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did you accuse Simone?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He laughed once.
“She was the one helping me fix it.”
The same pattern.
Create the fire.
Then become the person holding the hose.
Marcus continued.
“After the divorce, she told everyone I was irresponsible. Honestly, I believed her.”
I thought about Maya apologizing for things done to her.
People can be trained to carry blame that was never theirs.
“Did Darius help?”
Marcus’s jaw clenched.
“He introduced me to a lender.”
There it was.
Rollins later confirmed that at least four identities on the flash drive were connected to old friends, relatives, or former partners of Simone and Darius.
Some cases were small.
Some involved tens of thousands.
The prosecutor now treated the case as an organized fraud scheme.
Simone asked to speak with me through her attorney.
I refused at first.
Then Maya surprised me.
“You should go.”
“Why?”
“Because you still have questions.”
“So do you.”
“I don’t want answers from her.”
That sentence was wiser than anything I could say.
At the courthouse conference room, Simone looked smaller.
No makeup.
Hair messy.
A bandage above her eyebrow.
Her attorney sat beside her.
She said, “I’m cooperating.”
“Good.”
“I never wanted Darius to hurt anyone.”
“You helped him.”
“I thought I could control it.”
“You slapped Maya.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“You took her things.”
“I know.”
“You used her identity.”
“I gave Darius the documents.”
“You drugged me.”
Her voice dropped.
“I gave you something to make you sleepy.”
“That sentence doesn’t make it better.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I was drowning before I met you.”
“So you decided to drown us too?”
She looked away.
Then she said something I wasn’t ready for.
“I resented Renee.”
I stared at her.
“She was dead.”
“I know.”
“Then what exactly were you competing with?”
“Everything.”
Simone started crying.
“The house had her pictures. Maya had her face. You talked about her like she was still part of every room.”
“She was Maya’s mother.”
“I knew that. I hated that I hated it.”
For the first time, I heard truth without excuses.
Ugly truth.
Human truth.
It did not erase what she had done.
Then Simone pushed a folded piece of paper toward me.
“What’s this?”
“A list.”
“Of what?”
“Everything Darius still has hidden.”
I didn’t touch it.
She looked at me.
“Andre, there’s one more account in Maya’s name.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much?”
She shook her head.
“It isn’t debt.”
“What is it?”
“Money.”
May you like
“How much money?”
Simone whispered, “Enough to prove Darius was planning to run without me.”
