Chapter 6 - The Secondary Life
By Wednesday morning, the reality of Reid’s fall had begun to spread like oil on water.
Evelyn Vance’s team had moved with terrifying speed. By nine-thirty, official court subpoenas had been hand-delivered to the human resources and legal departments at Coastal Climate Solutions’ corporate headquarters in Richmond.
At eleven o'clock, my phone rang. The caller ID displayed an unknown Richmond landline.
“Sarah?”
The voice was frantic, pitched high with panicked agitation. It was Claire Montgomery.
I didn't answer immediately. I set my coffee cup down on my office desk, pressed the speakerphone button, and let the silence hang for three long seconds.
“Sarah, please don't hang up,” Claire rushed out, her words tumbling over each other. “I need to talk to you. You have to lift this court freeze!”
“I don't have to do anything for you, Claire,” I said, my voice completely devoid of emotion.
“You don't understand!” she cried out. “The bank froze the C&R Properties account this morning! The loan payment on the townhome was rejected, and my credit card was declined at the grocery store! I couldn't even pay for my daughter’s preschool tuition today!”
“How terrible for you,” I said flatly. “My children had to watch their father give a plush shark to your daughter while he lied to them about being at a work emergency.”
There was a sudden, sharp gasp on the other end of the line.
“He... he told me you knew,” Claire stammered, her tone suddenly shifting from anger to a fragile, disoriented confusion. “Reid told me you two were separated! He said you were living in separate bedrooms and that you had agreed to an informal property division two years ago while staying together for your kids!”
I sat up straight in my chair, my eyes narrowing. “Reid told you what?”
“He told me you had your own private life!” Claire said, her voice shaking now. “He said you were running your design business, that you didn't want to relocate to Richmond, and that you had agreed to let him maintain a residence near his primary job site! He’s been living with me four nights a week for fourteen months! He told me he was paying you spousal support through your joint account!”
I felt a cold, sharp sting of realization.
Reid hadn't just lied to me. He had constructed a completely inverted version of reality for Claire. He had presented himself to her as a devoted, responsible father who was trapped in an amicable, business-like arrangement with an estranged wife who lived in Williamsburg.
“Claire,” I said, my voice dropping an octave into pure, icy reality. “Look at your computer right now. Open a web browser.”
“What?”
“Open a browser and go to my personal portfolio site,” I commanded. “Or go to my Instagram. Look at the photos from two weeks ago.”
I heard the sound of clacking keys over the phone line, followed by a long, heavy silence that stretched for nearly twenty seconds.
On my public social media page, there were dozens of photos from this summer alone:
Reid and me holding hands at the twins' soccer tournament in July.
Reid grilling burgers on our back patio for my thirty-fifth birthday in June.
Family anniversary photos with captions celebrating eleven years of marriage.
“Oh my god...” Claire whispered. The sound was raw, choked with sudden, crushing humiliation. “Oh my god. He... he came to my daughter’s dance recital on Friday night. He told me he was working late in Norfolk.”
“He is a sociopath, Claire,” I said softly. “He lied to me for two years. He lied to you for fourteen months. He built a secondary life out of stolen time, stolen money, and complete deceit.”
“The company...” Claire gasped, her breath coming in ragged hitches. “Sarah... Coastal Climate Solutions suspended him two hours ago. Their internal audit team came into his office at ten AM, confiscated his laptop, and escorted him off the premises. They’re auditing every invoice attached to the Richmond project.”
My chest rose and fell. “Good.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Claire cried out, her voice breaking into full tears now. “The townhome is in my name too! If the LLC defaults, I’ll lose everything! My daughter—”
“You need to hire a lawyer, Claire,” I interrupted firmly. “And you need to cooperate fully with my legal team. If you try to protect Reid, or if you try to hide any assets he transferred to you, my lawyer will name you as a co-defendant in a civil fraud and conversion lawsuit that will destroy you financially for the next decade.”
“I’m not protecting him,” Claire spat out, her tone instantly turning from grief to dark, lethal fury. “He used me. He used my name to co-sign that lease and set up that entity. He told me the down payment was his executive bonus!”
“Then call a lawyer,” I said. “Because the storm is just getting started.”
I hung up the phone.
I sat at my desk for a long time, looking out the window at the rain falling on the oak tree in our front yard.
A profound, strange sense of relief began to wash over me. The confusion, the gaslighting, the lingering feeling of inadequacy I had felt over the past eighteen months as Reid gradually pulled away from our family—it all dissolved into thin air.
It was never about me. It was never about my appearance, my career, or my failure as a wife.
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Reid was a man driven by a hollow, insatiable arrogance—a man who believed he was smart enough to hold two entire realities in his hands without ever paying the bill.
And now, the bill had arrived.
