Chapter 3: The Message Proved Someone Had Been Watching Us For Months
Chapter 3: The Message Proved Someone Had Been Watching Us For Months
I stared at the unknown number until the screen went dark.
“You should have left your ring on.”
Those seven words wouldn’t leave my head.
Madison stood beside me, staring at the phone.
“Turn it off.”
“What?”
“Your location. Your Bluetooth. Everything.”
I quickly opened my settings.
My hands were shaking so badly that I kept pressing the wrong buttons.
“Do you think they’re tracking me?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t helpful.”
“I know.”
Madison looked toward the windows.
“That’s why I’m scared.”
I locked the phone.
“I’m going home.”
She grabbed my arm.
“No.”
“I have to find Daniel.”
“He specifically told you to go home.”
“Exactly.”
She stared at me.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense anymore.”
I grabbed my purse.
Before leaving, I looked at the photograph again.
Daniel.
Rachel.
My trainer.
All connected somehow.
And someone had been watching me.
I drove home alone.
The entire way, I kept checking the rearview mirror.
Nothing.
No suspicious cars.
No headlights following me.
Still, when I pulled into my driveway, I didn’t immediately get out.
The house looked completely normal.
Dark windows.
Closed garage.
Front porch light glowing softly.
Exactly the same house I’d left less than an hour earlier.
I finally stepped outside.
Then I noticed something.
My front door wasn’t locked.
I froze.
I knew I’d locked it.
I always locked it.
Slowly, I pushed it open.
“Daniel?”
No answer.
I entered.
Everything looked untouched.
The living room.
The kitchen.
The hallway.
Then I saw it.
My wedding photograph had been moved.
It normally sat on the bookshelf.
Now it was lying face down on the dining table.
I walked toward it.
Underneath the frame was a small white envelope.
My name was written across it.
No stamp.
No address.
Just my name.
I didn’t touch it immediately.
Instead, I called Daniel.
Straight to voicemail.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then I called Madison.
She answered immediately.
“Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find anything?”
“I think someone left me an envelope.”
Silence.
“Don’t open it.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever left it wants you to.”
I stared at the envelope.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Wait for me.”
I sat at the table.
Twenty minutes later, Madison arrived.
We opened the envelope together.
Inside was a single photograph.
My heart dropped.
It showed me at the gym.
I was wearing workout clothes.
My wedding ring was missing.
The picture had clearly been taken through a window.
On the back, someone had written:
Thursday, 6:42 p.m.
“That was yesterday,” I whispered.
Madison stared at the photo.
“You weren’t alone.”
I looked again.
My trainer was standing several feet behind me.
But there was someone else.
A man in a gray jacket.
His face was partially hidden.
“Do you recognize him?”
“No.”
Madison turned the photograph over again.
There was more writing underneath the first sentence.
Daniel knows.
My stomach tightened.
“He knew about this picture.”
“Maybe.”
“No. He knew.”
I stood.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Then my phone buzzed.
A new message.
This time, from Rachel.
Rachel: Please don’t believe everything Daniel tells you.
I stared at the screen.
Madison read it over my shoulder.
“Call her.”
I did.
Rachel answered after three rings.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“Why?”
“Because you were with Daniel.”
Another pause.
“Who told you?”
“I saw you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Then tell me where you were.”
She sighed.
“Your husband asked me to meet him.”
“Why?”
“He wanted information.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
My stomach twisted.
“What information?”
“About your trainer.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why does Daniel care so much about my trainer?”
“Because your trainer isn’t who you think he is.”
I looked at Madison.
“What does that mean?”
Rachel lowered her voice.
“I don’t know everything. But Daniel has been investigating him for months.”
“Why?”
“Because someone connected to him has been stealing information from your company.”
I froze.
“My company?”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
“What does my trainer have to do with my company?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel.”
“I swear.”
“Then what were you doing with Daniel?”
She hesitated.
“He asked me to help him.”
“With what?”
“Finding out who was following you.”
My heart skipped.
“Someone was following me?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why did you text me not to believe Daniel?”
“Because Daniel hasn’t told you everything.”
“What hasn’t he told me?”
Rachel was silent.
Then she said:
“He wasn’t investigating your trainer because he suspected you were cheating.”
I felt a strange sense of relief.
“Then why?”
“Because he suspected someone was using your relationship with your trainer to get close to you.”
I looked at the photograph again.
The man in the gray jacket.
“What does that person want?”
Rachel whispered:
“Your ring.”
I almost laughed.
“My ring?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel, you’re not making any sense.”
“I know.”
She took a breath.
“That’s why Daniel removed his.”
My blood ran cold.
“What?”
“He wanted whoever was watching you to think he was no longer your husband.”
I couldn’t speak.
Rachel continued.
“He wanted them to believe your marriage was falling apart.”
“Why?”
“Because he was trying to draw them out.”
Suddenly, everything changed.
The missing ring.
The new clothes.
The strange behavior.
The message.
Daniel hadn’t been trying to punish me.
He had been playing a game with someone else.
But I still didn’t understand one thing.
“Then why did he say it was his turn to play?”
Rachel went quiet.
“Because he knew you would think he was cheating.”
I felt sick.
“He wanted me to think that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make you follow him.”
I stared at Madison.
She slowly shook her head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
I agreed.
“It doesn’t.”
Then Rachel said something that made my entire body go cold.
“Because he needed you to find the person following you.”
“What?”
“Daniel knew you would follow him after seeing my name.”
“Why would he use your name?”
“Because he knew you trusted me.”
I stood up.
“Where is Daniel now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel.”
“I swear I don’t.”
Then I heard a sound behind me.
A soft click.
I turned.
The back door was open.
Madison grabbed my hand.
“Someone’s here.”
We stepped backward.
The house was silent.
Then my phone buzzed again.
A message from Daniel.
Daniel: I’m sorry.
Another message appeared.
Daniel: I didn’t know they would come for you this soon.
I stared at the screen.
Then the lights in the entire house went out.
Madison screamed.
A shadow moved across the hallway.
Someone whispered my name.
Not from the phone.
From inside the house.
And then a man’s voice said:
“Give me the ring.”
I looked down at my left hand.
The ring wasn’t there.
For one second, I thought that meant I was safe.
Then I remembered where I had put it.
Inside my gym bag.
And my gym bag was still in the car.
Outside.
In the dark.
With the stranger waiting somewhere between my house and the driveway.
