The footage showed Lauren entering the house alone and heading upstairs, then Blake arriving minutes later through the side entrance.
They stood close, speaking urgently, and Blake checked his watch while Lauren nodded with determined focus.
At one point she picked up my jacket from the bedroom chair and slipped it on as if rehearsing something.
Marissa studied the screen and murmured, “They are staging something.”
Police units reached the house shortly afterward and discovered signs of a fabricated accident in the garage, including a ladder positioned beneath a loosened ceiling beam and scattered tools meant to suggest a fall.
If I had been there, the scene would have told a convincing story.
Lauren texted again asking where I was, and I replied calmly that I had stepped out on business.
She responded with a single word, “Okay,” which felt colder than any argument we had ever had.
For the next three days Ava and I stayed in a secure hotel while Victor dug deeper into financial records and past connections.
What he uncovered chilled me more than the attempted murder.