I let out a dry, hollow laugh. “Dorian always had a different script depending on who was listening.”
She unzipped the suitcase and pulled out a velvet box that made my heart stop. Inside was my grandmother’s heirloom ring, the only thing my mother saved from our family’s bankruptcy years ago.
“He told me he bought this for me,” Brianna said with a look of pure disgust.
I felt a surge of adrenaline as I dug through the rest of the bag to find my passport, tax returns, and receipts for a company called “Summit Peak Holdings.” Dorian tried to stand up and stumble toward us.
“Look, Skylar, I can explain everything if you just listen,” he slurred.
“You should save that energy for your lawyer,” Brianna snapped before I could even open my mouth.
The police officer took interest when I showed him the forged documents and the jewelry that had been removed from my home without permission. Dorian tried to pivot, claiming we were partners and that the money was for our “joint future,” but the charm was gone.
We ended up back at my house so the police could take a full statement, and I didn’t object when Brianna asked to come along. We weren’t friends, but we were two witnesses to a very long con.
At 3:47 AM, I sat on my kitchen floor and called my bank’s emergency line. The agent confirmed that someone had tried to move a massive sum from my business savings to Summit Peak just an hour prior, but the security flag had frozen the account.
I was paralyzed by the realization that Dorian didn’t just want to leave me. He wanted to drain me dry and leave me with nothing but the bills.
The next morning, I met with my attorney, Meredith, while Brianna sat beside me in a coffee shop in Tempe. Meredith looked over the screenshots Brianna had recovered from Dorian’s phone before she blocked him.
In one message, Dorian told Brianna: “Just give me two days and I will have the cash to get us out of here.” Then there was a voice memo where his voice sounded sickeningly sweet.
“Skylar thinks she needs me to run her life. Once the wire clears, I’m gone. Women always want to be the hero or the martyr, and if you play the right part, they’ll do all the work for you.”
Meredith tapped her pen on the table and looked at me. “Back that up in three different clouds immediately.”