Chương 7
The sudden concern about money.
She had collected each warning and placed it in a separate box because putting them together would have forced her to face something she was not ready to face.
Her phone vibrated again.
This time it was not a message.
It was Luca.
She stared at his name.
Her mother noticed.
“You don’t have to answer.”
Jessi looked at the screen.
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know what he’s going to say.”
Her mother nodded.
“But remember.”
Jessi looked at her.
“Knowing what he says does not mean you have to believe it.”
Jessi answered.
“What?”
For several seconds, Luca said nothing.
She could hear him breathing.
“Where are you?”
“With Fiona.”
“Is she okay?”
The question irritated Jessi immediately.
Not because it was wrong.
Because it was too late.
“She’s safe.”
“I’m glad.”
“Why are you calling?”
A pause.
Then, “Mark contacted you.”
Jessi looked toward the window.
The yard outside was dark.
“How do you know?”
“Because he called me after.”
“So you two are still talking.”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
Jessi waited.
Luca sighed.
“Not like that.”
“Then like what?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s convenient.”
“I’m serious.”
His voice changed.
Less defensive.
More tired.
“Mark is scared.”
“Good.”
“He says he didn’t take the money.”
Jessi closed her eyes.
There it was again.
The endless space where nobody was responsible.
“I’m not interested in who says they didn’t do something.”
“Jessi.”
“I’m interested in what happened.”
Silence.
“Can you tell me?”
She almost ended the call.
Not because she did not want the answer.
Because she did.
And she knew answers changed things.
“I transferred the money.”
“I know.”
“I did it because I thought I could make it back.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t think it would get this far.”
Jessi looked down at her hand.
The wedding ring was still there.
She had not taken it off.
She wondered why.
Maybe because removing it would make the situation feel more real.
Maybe because some part of her was not ready to admit the person she married had become someone she did not recognize.
“You keep saying you didn’t think.”
Luca was quiet.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I wasn’t thinking about the consequences.”
“No.”
Jessi’s voice became softer.
“You were thinking about them.”
He did not respond.
“You just thought you could avoid them.”
The silence confirmed it.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology came quietly.
Almost too quietly.
Jessi expected anger to be easier.
She expected him to fight.
To blame.
To become the person she could hate without guilt.
Instead, he sounded like a man who finally understood the size of the hole he had dug.
And somehow that made everything more complicated.
“I need to know something.”
“What?”
“Was Fiona part of this?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Jessi listened.
That was different from the other answers.
There was no hesitation.
“No,” he repeated.
“I would never hurt her.”
Jessi looked toward the hallway where Fiona was sleeping in the next room.
“You already did.”
Luca did not argue.
The call ended a minute later.
The next morning, Jessi met with Detective Alvarez.
The bank had not filed a criminal report yet.
They were still reviewing the financial records.
But Daniel had suggested she speak with someone before things became more complicated.
Detective Alvarez was not dramatic.
That surprised Jessi.
She expected someone who would speak with certainty.
Instead, she spoke carefully.
“Right now, we have a financial concern.”
“Not a crime?”
“We don’t label something before we have enough facts.”
Jessi appreciated that.
Maybe because so much of her life had become people deciding things without enough facts.
“What do you need from me?”
“Anything that shows how the transfers happened.”
“Messages?”
“Yes.”
“Emails?”
“Yes.”
“Documents.”
“Yes.”
Jessi nodded.
The list felt endless.
But it was concrete.
Concrete was easier than emotion.
When she returned to her mother’s house, she opened the shared computer remotely.
She found the folder where Luca had stored financial documents.
She expected to find evidence of the account.
She did.
But she also found something else.
A scanned document.
A signature page.
Her name appeared at the bottom.
She stared at it.
She had never seen it before.
The document was for a loan.
Her name was listed as a co-signer.
Her heart started beating faster.
She opened the file.
The date was six months earlier.
Six months.
She had been working extra shifts then.
She remembered those weeks.
She remembered being exhausted.
She remembered Luca telling her he handled paperwork.
She remembered signing things without reading every page because she trusted him.
The memory felt like a physical wound.
Not because she had made a mistake.
Because he had counted on her trust.
Her phone rang.
This time it was Chloe.
Jessi almost ignored it.
Then she answered.
“Hello.”
“Jessi.”
Chloe’s voice was shaking.
“I need to tell you something before you hear it from someone else.”
Jessi said nothing.
“I found out about the loan.”
The room became still.
“How?”
“Because Luca asked me to help him.”
Jessi’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“Help him do what?”
A long pause.
Then Chloe whispered.
“Convince you to sign it.”
Jessi did not speak.
She could hear Chloe breathing through the phone.
Waiting.
Maybe hoping silence would make the confession smaller.
It did not.
“Say that again.”
Chloe swallowed.
“Luca asked me to help him get the loan.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“A few months.”
Jessi looked at the computer screen in front of her.
The document remained open.
Her name sat at the bottom like a stranger had written it there.
“How did you help him?”
Chloe hesitated.
That hesitation hurt more than the answer.
“I told you he was stressed.”
“That’s not helping him.”
“I told you he was trying to fix something.”
“What else?”
Chloe did not answer.
Jessi stood up from the table.
May you like
“What else, Chloe?”
“I told you he was working on a business opportunity.”
