Chapter 15 - Noah's Closet
Noah's closet looked normal.
Shoes.
Baseball glove.
A pile of sweatshirts.
Then I saw the loose floorboard beneath the back wall.
Tom arrived while I was pulling it up.
Inside was a small hard drive wrapped in a plastic bag.
I stared at it.
“Why hide it here?” Tom asked.
“Because no one searches a child's room first.”
The thought made me furious.
Michael had used our son as camouflage.
The police took the drive.
By midnight, they knew what was on it.
Every transfer.
Every forged document.
Every fake vendor invoice.
And every message between Michael and Victor Dane.
But there was one folder that had nothing to do with money.
FAMILY.
Inside were videos.
Michael talking into the camera.
Confessions.
The first was dated six months earlier.
“If Sarah ever sees this, it means I failed to clean up the mess.”
I hated how calm he looked.
“I cheated on her. More than once. Rachel wasn't the first.”
Tom closed his eyes.
I kept watching.
“I told myself it was stress. Ego. A bad marriage. None of that is true. Sarah didn't do this. I did.”
For one second, I couldn't breathe.
Not because it healed anything.
Because it was the first honest sentence I'd heard from him.
Then Michael said:
“I also need to say something about Tom.”
Tom looked up.
Michael continued.
“He knew Rachel was crossing lines months before the anniversary.”
Tom stiffened.
I turned.
“What does that mean?”
Tom's face changed.
On the video, Michael said:
“He confronted me in March.”
I stared at Tom.
“You knew in March?”
May you like
Tom looked devastated.
“Yes.”
