Chương 13
Now she looked uncomfortable.
"I should have called you earlier."
"You called yesterday."
"I mean months ago."
My stomach tightened.
"What happened months ago?"
She rubbed her thumb over a grease spot on the paper bag.
"Your work changed."
"How?"
"You started missing things."
My face burned.
"I didn't miss deadlines."
"No."
"You missed people."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"You stopped eating lunch with us."
"That's not work."
"You stopped arguing with Kevin."
I almost laughed.
"Maybe I matured."
"You once spent forty-five minutes explaining why his spreadsheet colors were a crime against civilization."
"They were."
"Exactly."
She looked at me.
"Then suddenly you stopped speaking in meetings unless someone asked you something directly."
I stared at the deli bag.
"I was tired."
"I thought that."
She swallowed.
"Then Mason started emailing."
"How often?"
"At first, once or twice."
"About what?"
"Insurance."
"Scheduling."
"Whether spouses could pick up documents."
"And later?"
"He started asking about your leave balances."
I looked at her.
"You answered him?"
"Some things."
Her face tightened.
"Nothing I believed was confidential at the time."
"What does that mean?"
"He would frame questions as though you had asked him to call."
"Did you verify with me?"
"Not every time."
The shame on her face was immediate.
I surprised myself by becoming angry.
"You should have."
"I know."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because he was your husband."
The answer was ordinary.
That made it worse.
Janet looked away.
"And because you seemed embarrassed whenever I brought him up."
I remembered those conversations.
Janet asking whether everything was okay at home.
Me laughing too loudly.
Mason later accusing me of discussing our private life at work.
After that, whenever Janet asked, I shut down.
"He trained me to make people uncomfortable asking."
Janet looked at me.
"Maybe."
"No."
I shook my head.
"He did."
Janet did not argue.
She opened her bag and pulled out a folder.
"HR collected the messages."
"All of them?"
"Everything we could find."
She hesitated.
"There are more than I remembered."
"How many?"
"Twenty-seven emails over six months."
My stomach tightened.
"From Mason?"
"From Mason and from an address using your name."
I looked at Mom.
She had gone still.
Janet continued.
"The fake address asked questions about disability leave, payroll changes, beneficiary forms, and remote work."
Naomi had warned me not to jump to conclusions.
Still, the pattern was becoming difficult to misread.
"Beneficiary forms?"
Janet nodded.
"Your life insurance."
Cold moved through my body.
"What about it?"
"The email asked how to change the primary beneficiary."
My mouth went dry.
"Was it changed?"
"No."
I exhaled.
Janet looked down.
"Because the form required your signature witnessed by HR."
Relief arrived beside nausea.
Again, a procedure had stopped something.
Not intuition.
Not rescue.
A boring requirement.
A witness.
"What did the email ask after that?"
Janet opened the folder.
"It asked whether an electronic signature would be accepted."
I closed my eyes.
Mom whispered, "Oh my God."
Janet's voice shook.
"We said no."
I opened my eyes again.
"Who is my beneficiary now?"
"Your parents."
Mom looked startled.
I had forgotten.
I had enrolled years before the wedding and never changed it.
Mason had complained about that once.
He said married people were supposed to choose each other.
I had promised to update it.
Then life intervened.
The forgotten form had become another barrier he could not quietly cross.
Janet slid the folder toward me.
"We also have login records showing the direct-deposit change request came from an IP address different from your usual work access."
"Can that identify him?"
"Not by itself."
Everyone had learned to speak like investigators now.
"Where did it come from?"
"Our home internet."
Mom inhaled sharply.
I stared at the pages.
"Did the change go through?"
"Yes."
"Where was my paycheck going?"
Janet's face tightened.
"An account in your name."
"I don't have another account."
"I know."
"Which bank?"
She told me.
I had never banked there.
"How long?"
"Seven pay periods."
Seven.
Nearly four months.
"How much?"
Janet looked at the paper.
"Net deposits total twenty-nine thousand, four hundred and twelve dollars."
The number hit differently from the loans.
Those were debts.
This was my labor.
My mornings.
My meetings.
My weekends repairing presentations because executives changed their minds at five on Friday.
All of it had been diverted while Mason lectured me about grocery spending.
I felt heat rise into my face.
Mom touched my shoulder.
I pulled away.
Not because I was angry at her.
Because I could not bear to be comforted yet.
Janet whispered, "I'm sorry."
I looked at her.
"Don't."
She blinked.
"I don't need everyone apologizing."
My voice came out harsher than I intended.
"I need facts."
Janet nodded.
"Okay."
I breathed once.
"What happens to my job?"
"Nothing today."
"What does that mean?"
"It means HR placed an identity-security flag on your employee account."
"Any changes now require in-person verification or a video meeting with two HR staff."
"Can Mason contact you?"
"He can send emails."
"We won't act on them."
"Can I still work remotely when the doctor clears me?"
"Yes."
I looked down at my cast.
"Good."
Janet hesitated.
"There's one more thing."
I almost laughed.
"Of course."
"Someone attempted to access your retirement account yesterday."
My chest tightened.
"Did they get in?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Multifactor authentication."
"To what?"
"Your work email."
I looked at the folder.
Mason had controlled my phone.
My mail.
My bank cards.
But not everything.
He had missed one door.
That tiny failure felt enormous.
My mother's phone rang.
She checked the screen.
"It's Naomi."
I answered.
Her voice was clipped.
"Hannah, I need you to listen carefully."
"I'm listening."
"The court denied Mason's emergency request for an immediate ex parte order."
Relief moved through me.
"But?"
"But the hearing is still scheduled tomorrow."
"Okay."
"And there's something else."
I stared at Janet's papers.
"What?"
"Detective Ortiz called me."
My pulse quickened.
"They opened the safe deposit box?"
May you like
"No."
"Then what?"
