Chapter 5 - The Red Line
At 1:55 PM, I sat up in my hospital bed, my tablet positioned on my lap. I had established a remote link to the security cameras installed inside my home.
On the screen, I watched Eric sprint up the stairs into my study. He looked disheveled, his tie loosened, his face slick with sweat. He pulled open my desk drawer, yanked out my professional laptop, and slammed it down onto the desk.
In the hospital room, the door opened quietly. Arthur and Ms. Vance stood by the window, watching the screen with me.
On the live feed, Eric booted up the computer. He entered our anniversary date as the password. The screen flashed green—access granted. He let out a loud, triumphant laugh that echoed through the small speakers of my tablet.
"Stupid woman," he muttered to himself on the audio feed, his fingers flying across the keys. "Always thought you were so much smarter than everyone else."
He opened the bookmark for my corporate bank portal. He typed in his credentials, then reached into his pocket to pull out the hardware token he had stolen from my purse. He waited for the digits to cycle, then typed them in: 8-4-2-9-1-1.
He hit Submit.
The screen on his laptop immediately went black. A single line of red text appeared across the center of the display:
ACCESS DENIED. ILLEGAL INTRUSION DETECTED. AUTHORITIES NOTIFIED.
Eric froze, his jaw dropping. He hit the keys frantically, trying to force a reboot, but the computer was completely locked down.
At that exact second, the door to my study was kicked open. Three plainclothes detectives, followed by two uniformed officers, burst into the room with their weapons drawn.
"Eric Vance? Put your hands where we can see them!" the leading detective shouted.
Eric scrambled back from the desk, knocking his chair over, his hands flailing in the air. "What? No! There's a mistake! This is my wife's computer! I have permission!"
"Save it for the station, Mr. Vance," the detective said, stepping forward and roughly pulling Eric’s arms behind his back, clicking the heavy metal handcuffs into place. "You're under arrest for multiple counts of corporate wire fraud, embezzlement, and attempted cyber-grand larceny."
From the hospital room, I watched my husband—the man who had stood by the pool and watched me drown while protecting an envelope of stolen cash—collapse onto his knees, weeping and screaming for his mother as he was dragged out of our home in chains.
May you like
I closed the app, leaned back against my pillows, and took the deepest, cleanest breath I had taken in months.
"One down," I whispered. "Now for Diane."
