The unknown number sent no further messages that night.
That frightened me more than if it had continued.
A threat repeated itself until you knew what it wanted.
Silence left too much room for possibilities.
Julia preserved the messages and arranged for the phone records to be documented.
My father contacted his attorney.
I sat at the kitchen table with Nathan's photographs spread across the surface.
The spreadsheet kept pulling my attention back.
Owen had listed assets he should never have known about.
The company interest was the clearest example.
It had been transferred to me only days before the dinner.
I had told no one except my father and the attorney handling the transfer.
Owen had not been present.
He had not even known the transfer was being considered.
Yet the spreadsheet contained the exact percentage.
I called my father.
“Who else knew?”
He understood immediately.
“About the company?”
“Yes.”
He named two people.
His attorney.
His financial adviser.
Nobody else.
Julia wrote the names down.
“Could Owen have accessed your father's email?”
I shook my head.
“Maybe,” my father said.
Julia looked at him.
“Change the passwords.”
He nodded.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed within seconds.
“What?”
He listened.
“Send me the file.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked at Julia.
“The company transfer documents were accessed yesterday.”
“By whom?”
“We're checking.”
My stomach tightened.
“Yesterday?”
He nodded.
“Someone opened the secure file.”
Julia stood.
“Can your system show the access?”
“Yes.”
“Then find out who.”
My father called his attorney.
While he spoke, I looked again at the handwritten note.
If Mara refuses, use the second route.
I could not stop thinking about those words.
“What if the second route isn't financial?”
Julia looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
“What if Owen knew I wouldn't sign something?”
She considered it.
“Then he may have planned another form of pressure.”
“Such as?”
“Reputation. Employment. Family.”
I thought of my father.
Then my stomach dropped.
“My father's company.”
She looked at me.
“He knew the company interest was transferred.”
“Yes.”
“What would he gain from attacking it?”
I didn't know.
But Owen had worked with corporate clients.
He understood business documents.
He understood how quickly an allegation could become damaging even if it later proved false.
My father ended his call.
“The access came from an external device.”
“Can they identify it?”
“They're trying.”
Then his phone rang again.
This time he answered with speaker enabled.
His attorney explained that the file had been opened using credentials belonging to one of the company's senior finance employees.
My father frowned.
“Which one?”
The name was given.
He looked at me.
I recognized it.
“That's Owen's friend.”
My father nodded slowly.
Owen had introduced him at a company dinner six months earlier.
I had assumed they barely knew each other.
Apparently, I had been wrong.
The attorney continued.
“The employee claims he didn't access the file.”
“Then someone used his credentials.”
“That's our assumption.”
Julia asked, “Has anything been changed?”
“No.”
“Good.”
My father thanked him and ended the call.
The kitchen fell silent.
“Owen wasn't working alone,” I said.
“No,” Julia replied.
“Now we have to determine who else is involved.”
Nathan called again.
I answered.
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“I need to correct something.”
“What?”
“The folder wasn't in Owen's apartment.”
I frowned.
“Where was it?”
“In a storage unit.”
My pulse quickened.
“What storage unit?”
“I don't know the number.”
“Where?”
“Near the airport.”
Julia gestured for me to put the call on speaker.
Nathan continued.
“Owen asked me to help move boxes there about two months ago.”
“Did you see who else had access?”
“No.”
“Did Lorraine?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you see the folder before?”
“No.”
I asked the question that had been bothering me.
“Why did you photograph it?”
He hesitated.
“Because I realized it wasn't normal.”
“What made you realize that?”
“I saw your father's name.”
My father looked up.
Nathan continued.
“Then I saw mine.”
“What?”
“My name was written on a page.”
I stared at him.
“What did it say?”
“I don't remember exactly.”
“Try.”
“It said something like witness.”
Julia's eyes narrowed.
“Witness to what?”
“I don't know.”
Nathan sounded frightened.
Then he said, “There was another name.”
“Whose?”
He gave it.
I felt my stomach turn.
It belonged to the finance employee who had supposedly accessed my father's company documents.
Julia immediately wrote it down.
“Where are the photographs now?” she asked.
“On my phone.”
“Don't delete them.”
“I won't.”
“Don't send them to anyone else.”
“Okay.”
The call ended.
My father looked at me.
“We need to protect Nathan.”
“I know.”
He shook his head.
“I should never have introduced Owen to the company.”
I touched his arm.
“This isn't your fault.”
He looked at me.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
That evening, we went to the police station to report the unauthorized loan applications and the threatening messages.
I gave them copies.
I did not exaggerate anything.
I told them exactly what I knew and what I did not know.
The officer asked whether I believed I was in immediate danger.
“I don't know.”
“Has he threatened you directly?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“Unknown messages.”
The officer documented them.
He advised me to preserve everything.
When we returned home, I noticed the front gate was open.
It had been locked when we left.
My father stopped walking.
Julia whispered, “Don't go inside.”
We waited outside while security checked the property.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
No broken windows.
No missing valuables.
But in the bedroom, a drawer was open.
The drawer where I kept old financial papers.
I checked the contents.
The trust documents were still there.
The company paperwork was still there.
Then I noticed one thing missing.
A photograph.
It was a picture of my grandmother standing beside me when I was ten.
I searched every drawer.
Nothing.
“Why would someone take that?”
Julia looked around.
“Maybe they didn't.”
“What do you mean?”
“They may have been searching for something and taken whatever was in the way.”
My father looked at the floor.
There was a faint muddy mark beside the window.
Someone had entered through it.
My hands shook.
The unknown messages suddenly felt different.
This was not someone trying to frighten me from a distance.
Someone had been inside my home.
I called the police again.
While we waited, my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
Stop looking.
I stared at it.
Then another.
You still don't understand who you're dealing with.
I showed Julia.
She read it.
“Don't respond.”
“I won't.”
A third message arrived.
The next thing you lose won't be property.
My father took my phone.
His face was pale with anger.
“We're moving you tonight.”
I nodded.
There was no argument.
We left the condo.
As we drove away, I looked back through the rear window.
The lights in the bedroom were still on.
For the first time, I understood that the person behind Owen's plan might not care whether the marriage survived.
They wanted access.
And if the marriage had failed to provide it, they were prepared to find another way.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: I Thought Owen Was the Center of the Scheme Until One Hidden Detail Connected His Family, My Trust, and the Threats
I Thought Hiding Beneath Our Wedding Bed Would Give Me a Laugh, Until My Husband’s Mother Walked In
Part 7 of 12
