“No.”
Julian nodded toward the suitcase.
“Open the bottom lining.”
Ava lunged.
Brooke grabbed her arm.
They struggled only for a second, but it was enough for me to pull the suitcase away.
“Ryan,” Ava said. “Do not open that.”
I placed it on the floor.
Inside were folded clothes, toiletries, a paperback novel, and a small makeup bag. The lingerie was gone now. So was the bottle. I removed everything until the suitcase looked empty.
Julian knelt beside it and pressed his thumb along the inner seam.
A section of fabric lifted.
Beneath it was a thin hidden compartment.
Inside lay a second phone, a hotel key card, and a sealed envelope.
Ava stopped fighting Brooke.
Her body seemed to lose strength all at once.
I picked up the envelope.
My name was written on the front.
Not typed.
Handwritten.
The handwriting looked like mine.
I tore it open.
Inside was a signed statement admitting that I had authorized several financial transfers through a consulting company I had never heard of. The document said I had knowingly provided false employment records, inflated property values, and used company funds to secure personal loans. At the bottom was a signature that looked almost exactly like mine.
Beside it was a date.
Monday.
Three days from now.
Brooke stared over my shoulder.
“She was going to date it after the weekend.”
Julian nodded.
“She needed him away from the house before it was filed.”
I looked at Ava.
“How were you planning to get me away?”
Her lips trembled.
“I wasn’t.”
Julian’s voice hardened.
“Tell him.”
“I said I wasn’t.”
“Tell him why the bottle was there.”
Ava closed her eyes.
The thing I had first believed proved betrayal now sat at the center of something colder.
Julian spoke carefully.
“The weekend was not supposed to be only Ava’s alibi.”
Brooke released her sister’s arm.
“What was supposed to happen to Ryan?”
Julian did not answer fast enough.
Ava did.
“He was supposed to follow me.”
The living room went still.
I looked at her.
“What?”
She stared at the floor.
“I knew you would check the suitcase. I knew you would see the clothes and think I was meeting someone.”
Julian continued for her.
“She expected you to track her phone.”
“I’ve never tracked her phone.”
“She believed you would after seeing the messages.”
I remembered the text preview that appeared on her phone Thursday night.
Don’t forget what you promised me.
A perfect sentence.
Suggestive enough to hurt.
Vague enough to deny later.
“Where would the phone have led me?” I asked.
Ava looked at Julian.
He answered.
“To a hotel outside Cincinnati.”
“And then?”
“To a room registered under my name.”
My throat tightened.
“What was waiting there?”
Julian stood.
“Police.”
Brooke stepped back.
Ava looked at me.
“It wasn’t supposed to go that far.”
I laughed once.
The sound surprised even me.
“You forged a confession in my name, planted evidence for me to find, sent me toward a hotel, and somehow it wasn’t supposed to go that far?”
“The police weren’t waiting for you,” she said quickly.
Julian shook his head.
“Don’t lie now.”
“They were waiting for the person with the laptop.”
“What laptop?”
Julian looked into the hidden compartment again.
“There should be another item.”