I started the SUV and drove away from the fire without looking back. The city felt different after midnight.
Toby fell asleep in the back seat with his dinosaur backpack as his pillow. I kept checking my mirrors for any headlights that followed too closely.
When I reached the old district, the neighborhood was mostly dark. Sarah’s office was in a narrow brick building with a plain wooden door.
Before I could even press the buzzer, the door opened. A woman with gray hair and sharp eyes stood there.
“Ayira?” she asked.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Come in quickly,” she said.
The moment we stepped inside, she locked the door with three separate deadbolts. The sound of those locks clicking gave me a small sense of peace.
The office smelled like old paper and strong coffee. There were framed degrees from prestigious universities on the walls.
“Put the boy on the couch,” Sarah said.
I lifted Toby gently and laid him down. Sarah poured two mugs of coffee and pointed to a chair.
“Tell me everything from the moment you got to the airport,” she instructed.
The words came out in jagged pieces as I described the fire and the key. I showed her the texts from Dominic on my phone.
She listened without interrupting me once. When I finished, I was breathing hard.
“Your father asked me to watch out for you because he knew Dominic was a fraud,” she said.
She walked to a metal filing cabinet and pulled out a thick folder. “Three years ago, your father hired a private investigator,” she revealed.
“What did they find?” I asked.
Sarah opened the folder. “Debt. A staggering amount of it. Your husband has a gambling problem with very dangerous people,” she said.
She slid bank statements across the desk toward me. “He has been bankrupt for two years,” she added.
“He has been patching holes with money that belonged to you,” she said.
“My mother’s inheritance?” I whispered.
“Every single cent of it is gone,” Sarah confirmed.
I felt a surge of rage that was sharper than the fear. “And now?” I asked.
“Now he owes close to half a million dollars to people who do not take excuses,” she said.
“How does burning the house help him pay that?” I asked.
Sarah looked me in the eye. “Life insurance. You have a policy for three million dollars,” she noted.
“And he is the sole beneficiary,” she added.
Toby’s whisper at the airport echoed in my mind. He had heard his father say he was finally going to be free.
“But we did not die,” I said.
