The message was from Paige’s younger sister asking why Derek suddenly paid back the $4,200 he borrowed last winter. Paige just stood there staring at the screen while the phone kept buzzing in her hand.
Derek tried grabbing it but she pulled away from him. Then another notification came through from their bank about a failed transfer attempt from the boys’ education account. Same amount as before. Eight thousand dollars.
That’s when Paige finally checked the transaction history more carefully.
The withdrawals didn’t start six months ago like we thought.
They started almost two years earlier.
Back when Derek still worked at the equipment company before he supposedly got laid off.
He kept saying it was temporary borrowing and he was going to replace everything before the kids got older. But none of the money was going toward bills. Mortgage was behind. Truck payment late too. Yet somehow he always had cash.
Paige asked him directly if there was gambling. Drugs. Another woman. He kept saying no to all three. Just sat there rubbing his forehead and asking for “one more day” to explain things properly.
Then his phone started ringing from a number saved only as “Rick DO NOT IGNORE.”
He declined it twice.
Third time Paige answered it herself on speaker.
Man immediately said, “If your husband doesn’t bring the remaining fourteen by Friday, we’re filing the lien against the Idaho property too.”
Derek lunged for the phone so fast he knocked one of the boys’ school pictures off the fridge.
The frame cracked open on the kitchen floor.
There was a folded storage-unit receipt hidden behind the photo.
Monthly payments.
Boise, Idaho.
Started three years before Paige even met Derek.