Chapter 7 - The Pattern Behind Derek’s Anger
Hannah called Thomas downstairs.
“Is there more?”
He looked exhausted.
“Probably.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Thomas sat opposite her at the kitchen table.
“When we reviewed the expense reimbursements, Derek insisted some charges were legitimate business development.”
“What kind?”
“Restaurants. Travel. Equipment rentals.”
“And?”
“We couldn’t substantiate them.”
“Did you report him?”
Thomas shook his head.
Hannah stared at him.
“You quietly fired him.”
“He repaid nineteen thousand dollars. Our attorney advised us on the employment side. I wanted it finished.”
“You wanted it quiet.”
“Yes.”
There it was again.
Thomas’s weakness.
Not cruelty.
Avoidance.
Derek had been able to count on it.
Hannah thought of every time her father had refused to confront something painful after her mother died.
Unopened hospital bills.
Arguments with Hannah’s older brother.
A foreman whose drinking had become obvious.
Thomas did not like explosions.
He removed oxygen from the room and hoped the fire died.
Derek had understood exactly what kind of man his father-in-law was.
“Did Derek threaten you?”
“No.”
“Then why is he terrified of you?”
Thomas leaned back.
“Because the repayment wasn’t the end.”
One vendor had recently contacted Pierce Custom Homes about invoices Derek supposedly authorized before leaving.
The amounts did not match company records.
Thomas had begun a second review.
Derek knew.
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I only found out last week.”
“The week you were supposedly respecting my request not to contact me.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Hannah suddenly saw the pattern.
Seven weeks earlier, Derek began sending messages from her phone telling Thomas to stay away.
That was almost exactly when the vendor first contacted Thomas.
Derek had not isolated Hannah only because he disliked her father.
He had isolated her when Thomas became dangerous to whatever Derek was hiding.
Another memory surfaced.
Three weeks earlier Hannah had mentioned calling her father after the baby came.
Derek exploded.
“For what? So he can walk in here acting like he owns us?”
At the time, Hannah thought it was wounded pride.
Now she wasn’t sure.
She picked up her phone.
“I want copies of every message sent to Dad.”
Some had synced into her cloud archive.
Others had been deleted.
But enough remained.
Hannah compared timestamps.
Several messages to Thomas had been sent while she was at prenatal appointments.
Derek had waited in the parking lot with her phone.
One had been sent at 2:16 a.m.
Hannah knew exactly where she had been then.
Asleep beside him.
She looked up.
“This wasn’t anger.”
Thomas frowned.
“What?”
“He had a system.”
The realization chilled her.
May you like
Derek had not lost control of the marriage.
He had been controlling it deliberately.
