Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Already Knew
The front door of the restaurant opened and a woman in a tailored charcoal blazer crossed the dining room straight toward us.
She didn't glance at me once. Her eyes were locked on Derek.
"I figured that was your car out front," she said. Calm. Unnervingly calm.
Derek's face lost its color. "Rachel, this isn't—"
"Don't." She set her phone flat on the table, screen up, right between our plates.
A banking alert filled the screen. An account with his name on it. Available balance: $47.
"Six figures," she said softly. "Go ahead. Tell her which side of the decimal."
Derek opened his mouth and nothing came out.
The woman finally looked at me, and there was something close to an apology in it. "He runs this same play every time. Nice restaurant. Big talk. Then he sits there until the woman across from him picks up the check. I'm his ex-wife. I've spent two years trying to catch him in the act so I could warn somebody."
The waitress came back with the folder. Rachel picked it up, checked the total, and laid her card on top of it without blinking.
"Hers is on me," she said. "He can figure out his own."
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Derek shoved his chair back like he was going to bolt.
That's when Rachel said the one thing that made him freeze completely.
