{"id":24322,"date":"2026-09-28T20:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=24322"},"modified":"2026-09-28T20:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:25:01","slug":"part-8-sarahs-old-divorce-file-proved-oak-creek-had-existed-for-years-and-showed-exactly-who-david-planned-to-sacrifice-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=24322","title":{"rendered":"PART 8 \u2013 Sarah\u2019s Old Divorce File Proved Oak Creek Had Existed for Years\u2014and Showed Exactly Who David Planned to Sacrifice Next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For several seconds, the diner seemed completely silent.<\/p>\n<p>Then a spoon clattered onto a plate at another table.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at Sarah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re certain?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her face had gone pale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not certain. It was years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow many?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost ten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid told Marcus that Oak Creek was created for the recent failed project.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah looked sick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen either I\u2019m remembering wrong, or David lied about when it started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ethan leaned toward his mother.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you still have your divorce papers?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour home or Dad\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan we get them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah nodded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re in a storage box.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at the clock.<\/p>\n<p>Nine fourteen Christmas morning.<\/p>\n<p>The entire country seemed to be opening gifts while we were trying to determine whether a company connected to my husband had existed for a decade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m calling Jessica.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She answered on the second ring.<\/p>\n<p>I explained.<\/p>\n<p>For once, she did not tell me to slow down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not alter the file.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhotograph the box before removing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhotograph the folder in place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Claire?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Oak Creek appears in divorce documents from ten years ago, I want those documents before anyone speaks to Marcus again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause then Marcus\u2019s explanation of Oak Creek may be incomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That possibility returned.<\/p>\n<p>Witness, creditor, participant, victim, or some combination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to Sarah\u2019s apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStay together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We paid for breakfast nobody had eaten and drove in two cars.<\/p>\n<p>Miriam followed because, as she said, someone needed to make sure I continued behaving like a person with a body instead of a detective made of caffeine.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah\u2019s apartment was twenty minutes away.<\/p>\n<p>It was smaller than I expected.<\/p>\n<p>Neat.<\/p>\n<p>Warm.<\/p>\n<p>A ceramic bowl on the entry table held keys and unopened mail.<\/p>\n<p>Family photographs covered one wall.<\/p>\n<p>I appeared in several.<\/p>\n<p>That caught me off guard.<\/p>\n<p>One from Chloe\u2019s high-school graduation showed Sarah on one side and me on the other.<\/p>\n<p>David stood behind us.<\/p>\n<p>He had his arms around both children.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the photograph now, I wondered what he had been hiding that day.<\/p>\n<p>I hated that thought.<\/p>\n<p>Not every old memory deserved to be poisoned by a new truth.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah led us to a hall closet.<\/p>\n<p>She photographed the storage box where it sat.<\/p>\n<p>Then the box after removing it.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica would have approved.<\/p>\n<p>Inside were tax returns, school records, old insurance papers, and finally a thick accordion file labeled DIVORCE.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah placed it on the dining table.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody spoke as she opened it.<\/p>\n<p>The first pages were ordinary.<\/p>\n<p>Petition.<\/p>\n<p>Custody schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Property disclosures.<\/p>\n<p>Settlement correspondence.<\/p>\n<p>Then Sarah pulled out a financial appendix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A list of marital assets.<\/p>\n<p>Checking accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Retirement plans.<\/p>\n<p>One vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>An investment entity.<\/p>\n<p>Oak Creek Development LLC.<\/p>\n<p>My heartbeat changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot Holdings,\u201d Ethan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah scanned the page.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Oak Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat value?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>She found the column.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThirty-two thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho received it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She turned to another page.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApparently because it held an interest in a commercial parcel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her finger moved down the page.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCedar County.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miriam had been quiet until then.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat failed project did Marcus mention?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at the emails on my phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommercial real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I searched.<\/p>\n<p>Cedar County.<\/p>\n<p>The same county.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah sat back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ethan took the page from her carefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo Oak Creek isn\u2019t new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe the company changed names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the connection was too direct to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah continued searching.<\/p>\n<p>She found an email from David\u2019s divorce attorney discussing Oak Creek.<\/p>\n<p>The language referred to it as a \u201clegacy development vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Legacy.<\/p>\n<p>Not new.<\/p>\n<p>Not created eighteen months ago.<\/p>\n<p>Another document listed an outstanding private loan associated with the entity.<\/p>\n<p>Lender name: M. Reed.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus Reed.<\/p>\n<p>I felt cold all over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTen years ago,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah nodded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApparently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miriam pulled out her phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not call him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She photographed the page.<\/p>\n<p>I sent it to Jessica.<\/p>\n<p>Then we waited.<\/p>\n<p>The response came three minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>DO NOT CONTACT MARCUS. I\u2019M CALLING YOU.<\/p>\n<p>My phone rang.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat exactly are you looking at?\u201d Jessica asked.<\/p>\n<p>I described the document.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoes it say Marcus Reed or merely M. Reed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cM. Reed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not assume identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the company?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOak Creek Development LLC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDifferent legal name from Oak Creek Holdings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCould be related. Could be unrelated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt owns property in the same county.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Sarah says David received it in their divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat matters more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you want us to do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScan or photograph the entire relevant section.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We did.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-four pages.<\/p>\n<p>When we finished, Jessica said, \u201cNow I want you to look for anything involving debt guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah flipped through the settlement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA release.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRead the heading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMutual Release of Claims Relating to Oak Creek Development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jessica became quiet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho signed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarah. David. And\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd who?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cM. Reed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n<p>The signature underneath was legible.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus Reed.<\/p>\n<p>No question now.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus had known Oak Creek years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>He had known David years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>He had told me at two in the morning that Oak Creek had been created for recent liabilities.<\/p>\n<p>That was false.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJessica,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou do not confront him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe lied to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what we will determine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The discipline in her voice stopped me from calling Marcus immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah continued reading.<\/p>\n<p>The release appeared to resolve claims connected to a development deal.<\/p>\n<p>The wording was dense.<\/p>\n<p>But one line was clear.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah Bennett\u2014then Sarah Keller\u2014relinquished any claim to Oak Creek in exchange for release from associated liabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah stared at the page.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I signed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her voice trembled slightly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid told me the company was worthless but had debts. He said taking it in the divorce protected me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid your attorney agree?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo maybe that part was legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She turned another page.<\/p>\n<p>Then stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a handwritten note.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom whom?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She angled the page toward the light.<\/p>\n<p>The note had been written beside a clause about outstanding creditor obligations.<\/p>\n<p>If Reed releases Sarah, D. assumes exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Below that:<\/p>\n<p>Future spouse assets may cure.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan read it twice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFuture spouse?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My throat tightened.<\/p>\n<p>The note might have been written by an attorney.<\/p>\n<p>An accountant.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus.<\/p>\n<p>David.<\/p>\n<p>We didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>But the phrase made my skin crawl.<\/p>\n<p>Future spouse assets may cure.<\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago, someone had considered the possibility that David\u2019s future spouse might have assets useful to resolve Oak Creek liabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Me.<\/p>\n<p>Or whoever came after Sarah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhotograph it,\u201d Jessica said through the phone.<\/p>\n<p>I had forgotten she was still listening.<\/p>\n<p>We did.<\/p>\n<p>Then she said something I had not expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClaire, I want you to leave Sarah\u2019s apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause David knows where she lives?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd because he may realize you\u2019re comparing historical records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow would he know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe doesn\u2019t need to. Assume he will eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We packed the papers carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah placed the original divorce file into a canvas tote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere do we go?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomewhere public,\u201d Jessica said. \u201cAnd do not take that file back to David\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miriam suggested Safe Harbor.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica rejected it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo connected to Claire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A hotel conference area near the airport became the temporary plan.<\/p>\n<p>Before leaving, Sarah went to her bedroom.<\/p>\n<p>She returned carrying a small locked fireproof box.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is that?\u201d Chloe asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld documents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have more?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot I kept these separately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She placed the box on the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the divorce, my attorney told me to keep anything related to Oak Creek forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause she said David\u2019s financial disclosures had been inconsistent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My pulse jumped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never told me that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. Later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah looked ashamed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the time you married him, I thought it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I understood.<\/p>\n<p>I had made the same mistake with the eighty-thousand-dollar loan.<\/p>\n<p>Private embarrassment tends to masquerade as finished business.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah opened the box.<\/p>\n<p>Inside were bank statements, attorney letters, and an old flash drive.<\/p>\n<p>The flash drive had a piece of masking tape wrapped around it.<\/p>\n<p>OAK CREEK BACKUP.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan stared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s on that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you make it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho did?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy attorney\u2019s paralegal, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jessica\u2019s voice came sharply through the speaker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not plug it into anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody moved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnderstood,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want that device preserved exactly as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We placed it in a clean envelope.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah wrote the date and time across the seal.<\/p>\n<p>Miriam raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo jokes,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t joking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We left the apartment in two cars.<\/p>\n<p>Halfway to the hotel, my phone rang.<\/p>\n<p>David.<\/p>\n<p>I let it go to voicemail.<\/p>\n<p>Then another call.<\/p>\n<p>Then another.<\/p>\n<p>Finally a text.<\/p>\n<p>I KNOW YOU\u2019RE WITH SARAH.<\/p>\n<p>My chest tightened.<\/p>\n<p>Another message appeared.<\/p>\n<p>SHE IS LYING TO YOU.<\/p>\n<p>Then:<\/p>\n<p>ASK HER WHAT SHE TOOK FROM OAK CREEK.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah was driving ahead of us.<\/p>\n<p>I called her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you take anything from Oak Creek?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid just texted me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I read the message.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah was silent.<\/p>\n<p>Then she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t take money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat wasn\u2019t my question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another long pause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarah?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore our divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat records?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t remember exactly. Copies of accounts. Investor lists. Payment notes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere are they?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought my attorney had them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about the flash drive?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat may be them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Miriam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause I genuinely forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you forget something like that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause ten years passed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her voice sharpened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause I raised two children. Because I worked. Because I rebuilt my life. Because I thought David\u2019s failed company was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I forced myself to breathe.<\/p>\n<p>She was right.<\/p>\n<p>I had no right to demand that she remember her old marriage with perfect archival clarity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did the records show?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was quiet.<\/p>\n<p>Then her voice changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat names?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who supposedly invested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of them didn\u2019t know they were investors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared through the windshield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never understood it completely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSarah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid used accounts connected to other people to move money through Oak Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My hand tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhose accounts?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only remember one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>David\u2019s mother had been dead for fourteen years.<\/p>\n<p>Miriam looked sharply at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen did the transactions occur?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter she died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The air inside the car seemed to disappear.<\/p>\n<p>I ended the call only after making Sarah promise not to discuss the flash drive with David.<\/p>\n<p>Then my phone rang again.<\/p>\n<p>Not David.<\/p>\n<p>Marcus.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at his name.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica had told me not to answer.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>He left a voicemail.<\/p>\n<p>A minute later, another.<\/p>\n<p>Then a text.<\/p>\n<p>Claire, David just told me you found Sarah\u2019s old Oak Creek records. Before you believe what you see, you need to understand the company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>I showed Miriam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow does Marcus know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n<p>Because there were only a few possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>David had told him.<\/p>\n<p>Or someone else had.<\/p>\n<p>Or Marcus had been watching us all far more closely than we realized.<\/p>\n<p>Another text arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Your husband is dangerous when cornered.<\/p>\n<p>My heart began to pound.<\/p>\n<p>Then a second line appeared.<\/p>\n<p>But Sarah is not telling you everything either.<\/p>\n<p>I looked through the windshield at her car ahead of us.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time since she had admitted David lied about Christmas, I felt uncertainty move back into the space between us.<\/p>\n<p>Not suspicion exactly.<\/p>\n<p>Something more careful.<\/p>\n<p>Because David had spent years weaponizing secrets.<\/p>\n<p>And Sarah had just admitted she possessed records capable of reopening a decade of them.<\/p>\n<p>Before I could decide what to do, Chloe called from Sarah\u2019s car.<\/p>\n<p>Her voice came fast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClaire, Mom remembered something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was another person involved with Oak Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe can\u2019t remember his last name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat first name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDaniel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at the emails from my cousin, the trustee who had been receiving questions from David since August.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsk her what Daniel did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I heard Chloe turn away.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah answered faintly.<\/p>\n<p>Then Chloe came back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says he handled trust paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mouth went dry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat year?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore Mom and Dad divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was impossible.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Mercer had never mentioned knowing Sarah.<\/p>\n<p>Never mentioned Oak Creek.<\/p>\n<p>Never mentioned David before I introduced them.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at the highway ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Another message came from Marcus.<\/p>\n<p>This one contained only six words.<\/p>\n<p>Ask your trustee when he met David.<\/p>\n<p>I stopped breathing.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=24323\">Click here to continue reading: PART 9: Daniel\u2019s Answer About When He Met David Forced Me to Question the One Relative I Thought I Could Trust<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For several seconds, the diner seemed completely silent. Then a spoon clattered onto a plate at another table. I stared at Sarah. \u201cYou\u2019re certain?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d Her face had gone pale. &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24379,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24322\/revisions\/24379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}