Chapter 3 - The Ghost from the Past
The moment I locked the deadbolt behind my mother, I pulled Sarah’s phone out of my jacket pocket and sat at the kitchen island. My hands were shaking so violently I could barely input her passcode—our wedding anniversary. I immediately opened her messaging apps, navigating to the draft folder where my mother had been typing before the ambulance arrived.
There were three drafts saved. The first was to a local family law attorney, inquiring about emergency divorce proceedings. The second was an email addressed to my personal account, written in a dramatic, hysterical tone, claiming she couldn't handle being a mother anymore and wanted to leave the state without us. But it was the third item—a text message sent to an unsaved phone number—that made my jaw clench.
The text read: “The plan is working. She cracked today. Ethan will be filing for custody by the end of the week. Make sure you are in town by Friday so you can be there to comfort him.”
I stared at the phone number. The area code was from my college town, three hundred miles away. With a mounting sense of dread, I copied the digits into my own phone and ran a quick reverse search on a public directory app. A name and a profile picture popped up almost instantly.
Chloe Sterling.
My chest constricted. Chloe was my college girlfriend from ten years ago—a wealthy, manipulative socialite who had constantly belittled my career ambitions and demanded absolute control over my life. I had broken off our engagement a decade ago after catching her lying about a pregnancy to force me into buying a house near her parents. My mother had always adored Chloe, frequently praising her family’s wealth and status, and had never forgiven me for choosing Sarah—a compassionate, down-to-earth elementary school teacher—over a high-society heiress.
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I opened my laptop and pulled up Chloe’s public social media profile. Her latest post, uploaded just three hours ago, showed a photo of her packing a set of designer suitcases. The caption read: “New beginnings! Packing for a permanent relocation to the city. Fate always corrects itself in the end. Can't wait to see my favorite boys!”
My mother hadn't just been bullying my wife out of malice. She had been actively engineering a psychological breakdown to clear the path for my toxic ex-fiancée to step into my home, take my son, and replace the woman I loved.
