We met the next afternoon at a coffee shop across town.
Tessa looked like her photographs, only more tired. Dark circles framed her eyes, and she kept twisting a silver ring around one finger.
It was not a wedding ring.
Grant had given it to her.
“He said it was a promise,” she explained after noticing me looking at it.
“Of what?”
“That we would move in together before Christmas.”
Christmas was four months away.
“He told me we were renovating the guest room this winter,” I said.
“For what?”
“My mother. She has been talking about moving closer to us.”
Tessa removed the ring and set it on the table.
“He really did have an answer for everything.”
I showed her the prepaid messages. She showed me months of conversations with Grant.
He had repeatedly told her his divorce was almost final.
“I paid for the resort,” I told her.
“You did?”
“He used the credit card connected to our joint account.”
Her mouth fell open.
For the first time since meeting, we both laughed.
It was not joyful laughter.
It was the stunned reaction of two women realizing the same man had deceived them in increasingly absurd ways.
When it faded, Tessa leaned forward.
“What do you want from me?”
“The truth.”
“You have it.”
“I want him to say it.”
She considered that.
“He won’t.”
“He will if he thinks he has no other choice.”
Over the next week, we tightened the trap.
From the prepaid number, I told Grant that Tessa had saved photographs, messages, and receipts.
He begged her not to contact me.
When that failed, he offered money.
“How much?” I texted.
“Name a number,” he replied.
I showed Tessa.
She shook her head. “Ask for 10,000.”
“Why ten?”
“Because he told me he had 30,000 saved for our new apartment.”
Grant and I had less than eight thousand dollars in savings.
I typed the amount.
He replied, “I can’t get that much without my wife noticing.”
Tessa read the message twice.
“So he was going to use your money to silence me.”
“Apparently.”
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