Chapter 9: The House I Was Never Supposed to Know About

Luke finally gave me the address.

It was less than twenty minutes from my townhouse.

I wrote it down without saying a word.

Ethan stood beside the sofa, staring at his brother like he no longer recognized him.

“I'm going with her,” he said.

Luke immediately shook his head.

“No.”

Ethan's expression hardened. “You don't get to decide that anymore.”

Luke looked at me.

“Elena, please. Just let me explain before you go there.”

“You've had eight weeks to explain.”

I picked up my keys.

“I'm going.”

Luke followed me to the door.

“If you go there, you're going to make everything worse.”

I turned around.

“For who?”

He didn't answer.

That was enough.

Ethan drove behind me as I followed the address Luke had given us.

The neighborhood was newer than I expected.

Large houses.

Quiet streets.

Fresh landscaping.

As we turned onto the final road, I recognized the development immediately.

It was one of the communities I had researched when Luke and I first started looking for our future home.

I remembered telling him that the houses were beautiful but too expensive.

He had kissed my forehead and said, “We'll find something better.”

Apparently, he had.

We stopped in front of a two-story house with white siding and a wide front porch.

There was a small sign in the window.

SOLD.

My heart sank.

“You said they hadn't bought it.”

Ethan looked at the house.

“Maybe Luke lied about that too.”

I got out of the car.

The front door wasn't locked.

I pushed it open.

The house was empty, but it didn't look unfinished.

There were furniture catalogs on the kitchen counter.

Paint samples spread across the island.

A folder from a real estate agency sat beside them.

I opened it.

The buyer's name wasn't Luke.

It was Maya.

I stared at the paperwork.

The house was in her name.

Then I found the mortgage documents.

My stomach twisted.

Luke's name appeared as a guarantor.

But my name wasn't anywhere.

For the first time, I felt a tiny flicker of relief.

Maybe this wasn't about my money.

Then I opened the next folder.

Bank transfer records.

Several large payments had been made toward the property.

The account numbers were partially hidden.

But the last four digits were familiar.

They belonged to an account I recognized.

My joint account with Luke.

I stepped backward.

“No.”

Ethan took the papers from my hands.

His face went pale.

“Elena…”

I looked at him.

“How much?”

He scanned the documents.

“I don't know.”

“Tell me.”

He swallowed.

“Almost thirty thousand dollars.”

The room seemed to tilt.

Thirty thousand.

My money.

Money I thought was sitting safely in our joint account for emergencies and future expenses.

Money Luke had apparently been moving without telling me.

I took out my phone and checked the account.

The balance was far lower than it should have been.

I had frozen his card, but I hadn't frozen the joint account itself.

Another transaction appeared on the screen.

A transfer scheduled for the following morning.

Twenty thousand dollars.

I stared at the number.

Luke wasn't finished.

I immediately called the bank.

The representative confirmed that the transfer had been scheduled from the joint account.

I canceled it.

Then I asked what else was pending.

There was a pause.

“Ma'am, there's also an outgoing wire transfer scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.”

My pulse quickened.

“How much?”

“Fifteen thousand dollars.”

I closed my eyes.

They were still trying to drain the account.

Even after everything.

Even after I had ended the engagement.

I hung up and looked at Ethan.

“Call Luke.”

He did.

Luke answered immediately.

“Ethan, where are you?”

I took the phone from him.

“Why are you transferring my money?”

Silence.

Then Luke sighed.

“Elena, I can explain.”

“You'd better.”

“The money was going toward Maya's house.”

I looked around the beautiful empty rooms.

“Why?”

His voice dropped.

“Because once we were married, we needed somewhere to live.”

I laughed once.

“So you used my money to buy your wife a house.”

“It wasn't supposed to be permanent.”

“Neither was my money supposed to be yours.”

He went quiet.

Then he said something that made my blood run cold.

“Elena, you don't understand. If you expose everything, Maya and I could lose the house.”

I stared at the papers in my hand.

“That's exactly what I'm planning to do.”

I ended the call.

Ethan looked at me.

“What are you going to do now?”

I looked around the house they had tried to build with my money.

“I'm getting every dollar back.”

Then I noticed one final document beneath the mortgage papers.

It was a signed agreement between Luke and Maya.

And my name was written in the middle of it.