Chapter 8 - WHAT RICK TOOK FROM ME
Rick called at six the next morning.
I stared at the screen.
Unknown number.
I let it ring.
Then a voicemail appeared.
I played it.
"Megan, I know you're angry."
I almost laughed.
Rick always began apologies by telling me how I felt.
"I need you to listen. Everything that happened was because I was trying to protect you."
I stopped the recording.
Julian sat across the kitchen.
"Don't listen to him."
"I need to know what he thinks he's protecting me from."
Julian looked at me.
"Curiosity can be dangerous."
"So can ignorance."
He nodded.
"Play it."
I restarted the message.
Rick's voice continued.
"Your father left something behind. I didn't know what it was at first. I only knew people were looking for it. I was told to get close to you."
My stomach twisted.
"At first, I didn't care about you."
The sentence should have broken me.
Instead, I felt strangely calm.
"I thought you were easy."
I closed my eyes.
"You were lonely. You were insecure. You needed someone to tell you what to do."
Julian's jaw tightened.
I raised a hand.
"Let him finish."
Rick continued.
"Then things changed."
The recording became quiet for a moment.
"I actually loved you."
I almost believed it.
That was the worst part.
Because Rick was capable of sounding sincere.
"I didn't know how to stop."
The voicemail ended.
I stared at the phone.
Julian said nothing.
Finally I asked, "Was any of it real?"
He answered carefully.
"That's not the question that will save you."
"What is?"
"Who you become after him."
I looked at him.
"I don't know."
"You will."
A knock came from the hallway.
Moren entered.
"We found something."
She placed a folder on the table.
Inside were copies of Rick's bank records.
My name appeared on dozens of transfers.
But beside each one was another account.
A trust.
A company.
A shell organization.
I recognized the address.
My old apartment.
"What?"
Julian pointed to the dates.
"Rick used your name to establish accounts."
"I never signed these."
"I know."
"Then how?"
"Forgery."
I felt sick.
"Could he have done this without me knowing?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To make you look responsible for transactions you never made."
I stared at the documents.
"He was building evidence against me."
"Yes."
"So if something happened, everyone would think I was involved."
Julian nodded.
The realization was devastating.
Rick hadn't only controlled my life.
He had been preparing to destroy it.
Then another page caught my attention.
A payment.
One hundred thousand dollars.
Recipient: Victor Hale.
Date: two weeks before Rick first asked me out.
I looked at Julian.
"He was paid to date me."
Julian didn't answer.
I felt something inside me go silent.
Four years.
Four years of believing I had chosen the wrong man.
The truth was worse.
The wrong man had chosen me.
I stood.
"I want to see him."
Julian's eyes narrowed.
"No."
"I need to."
"Megan."
"I need to hear him say it."
"You don't owe him that."
"I know."
I took the folder.
"I'm doing it for me."
Julian stared at me.
Then he nodded.
"Under my conditions."
I smiled.
"Of course."
We met Rick in a private legal office downtown.
He was already waiting.
His wrists weren't cuffed.
He looked exhausted.
For the first time, he looked like a man rather than the version of himself he showed the world.
When he saw me, he stood.
"Megan."
I sat across from him.
"Tell me the truth."
"I have."
"No."
I put the bank statement on the table.
"Tell me when you were paid to enter my life."
His face went pale.
"You found that."
"Answer me."
"Four years ago."
I nodded.
"How much?"
"One hundred thousand."
"Who paid you?"
"Victor."
I felt Julian tense behind me.
Rick looked at me.
"I was supposed to find whatever your father left."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then why did you stay?"
He looked down.
"Because I fell in love with you."
I laughed once.
"You don't get to use that word."
"I know."
"Did you ever love me?"
His eyes filled.
"Yes."
I hated that I believed him.
Not because I forgave him.
Because I finally understood something.
Love could exist inside a person who still chose cruelty.
That didn't make the cruelty less real.
It made the choice worse.
"Why did you try to sell me?"
Rick looked toward Julian.
"Because Victor said the debt was the only way to make the transfer legal."
"The debt was fake."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Rick swallowed.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of Victor?"
"Of everyone."
He leaned forward.
"I tried to stop it."
"When?"
"The night I brought you to the mansion."
I stared.
"You expected me to believe that?"
"I didn't know Vale would protect you."
Julian spoke for the first time.
"You didn't expect me to know the debt was already paid."
Rick's face tightened.
"No."
"Who told you it wasn't?"
"Victor."
Julian nodded.
"So Victor lied to you too."
Rick looked down.
"Yes."
I stood.
There was nothing left to ask.
As I reached the door, Rick said, "Megan."
I stopped.
"Your father didn't die because of the ledger."
I turned.
"Then why?"
Rick looked terrified.
"Because he tried to give it to Julian's brother."
The room went silent.
Julian moved closer.
"What did you say?"
"Daniel was supposed to take it."
"Where?"
Rick looked at me.
"Your father hid the ledger in the one place Daniel knew he could find it."
"Where?"
Rick whispered the answer.
"Your childhood home."
I froze.
"The house was sold."
"Yes."
"And burned?"
"No."
Rick shook his head.
"The cottage was never burned."
I looked at Julian.
His expression had gone completely still.
Rick continued.
"Victor burned a different property."
"Why?"
"To make everyone believe the ledger was gone."
Julian stepped toward him.
"Where is the cottage?"
Rick looked at me.
"Still standing."
Then he smiled bitterly.
"And your father may still have a room inside it that nobody found.
Julian's phone rang.
He answered.
"Yes."
A pause.
"Send me the coordinates."
He ended the call.
"The cottage was located."
My heart jumped.
"Where?"
"Twenty minutes from here."
Rick looked at Julian.
"You're going?"
"Yes."
"You shouldn't."
Julian's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because Victor knows."
I looked at Rick.
"How?"
"He wants you there."
"Why?"
Rick's face changed.
"Because the cottage isn't empty."
I felt cold.
"Who is inside?"
Rick shook his head.
"I don't know."
Julian turned toward the door.
"Then we find out."
I followed.
Before I left, I looked back at Rick.
"You said you loved me."
He nodded.
"I did."
"Then understand this."
I placed the folder on the table.
"Whatever happens next, you don't get to decide my life."
His eyes filled.
"I know."
I walked out.
In the hallway, Julian waited.
"You okay?"
"No."
He nodded.
"Good."
I frowned.
"Good?"
"People who say they're okay when they're not usually haven't accepted what happened."
I looked at him.
"You don't make anything easy."
"No."
"Is that intentional?"
"Usually."
Despite myself, I smiled.
He looked at me for a second longer than necessary.
Then he stepped back.
"We have work."
The cottage waited twenty minutes away.
And for the first time, I was going back to the place where my father had hidden the truth.
Not as a frightened seventeen-year-old.
Not as Rick's girlfriend.
Not as someone's debt.
I was going as Megan Walsh.
And I intended to leave with answers.
On the way out, I stopped at the courthouse steps.
The city was waking around us.
People hurried past.
Nobody knew what had just happened.
Nobody knew that the woman standing there had spent four years inside a carefully constructed lie.
I breathed deeply.
Rick had wanted me to believe I was helpless.
Victor had wanted me to believe I was a clue.
Grant had wanted me to believe the law belonged to powerful men.
They had all been wrong.
I had a voice.
I had evidence.
And I had people who believed me.
Julian stood beside the car.
"Ready?"
I looked back at the building.
"Yes."
He opened the door.
I got inside.
The cottage was waiting.
So was the truth.
And somewhere ahead, I knew the final answer would hurt.
But pain was no longer enough to make me turn around.
I walked into the courthouse the next morning feeling strangely calm.
Maybe because I had finally stopped waiting for Rick to become the man I wanted him to be.
He wasn't.
Maybe he never would be.
That truth hurt less than the years of hoping.
Julian waited outside.
He didn't come inside with me.
I asked why.
"Because this is your decision."
I smiled.
"You really mean that."
"Always."
I entered alone.
For the first time, the door behind me didn't feel like a cage.
It felt like a threshold.
I was leaving one life behind.
Not because a man rescued me.
Not because a powerful criminal promised protection.
Because I had finally rescued myself.
When I came back outside, Julian was still waiting.
He didn't ask whether I was afraid.
He simply held out his hand.
I took it.
May you like
And together, we walked toward whatever came next.
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