"Rachel, I'm not asking again."

Derek's voice came through the phone.

Rachel sat in Ethan's lake house with Sophie asleep beside her.

Olivia had advised her to preserve any further threatening communications.

Rachel had agreed to answer one scheduled call with her attorney present.

Now Derek was demanding that she return to Chicago.

"You need to bring Sophie home."

Rachel looked down at her daughter.

"She's safe with me."

"You have no idea what you're doing."

"Then explain why you opened an investment account in her name."

Silence.

Rachel's pulse quickened.

"Derek?"

"Who showed you that?"

She didn't answer.

His voice hardened.

"Callahan."

Rachel looked toward Ethan, who was seated across the room with his own attorney.

Derek continued.

"That man is using you. He'll throw you away the second he gets what he wants."

Rachel kept her voice steady.

"What does Ethan want?"

"My records."

"Then why did you bring me into his office building while I was pregnant?"

Derek stopped speaking.

Rachel continued.

"I remember the appointment. I remember the woman with the medical badge."

"You're confused."

"No."

Her voice grew stronger.

"I remember hearing someone shouting behind the door."

Derek exhaled sharply.

"Listen carefully. You need to stop asking questions."

"Why?"

"Because people are going to get hurt."

Rachel felt a familiar chill.

For months, that kind of warning had been enough to silence her.

Not anymore.

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm trying to protect you."

"Then stop threatening to take Sophie."

Derek's breathing changed.

Rachel heard another voice in the background.

A man.

"Tell her about the agreement."

Derek immediately muted the phone.

Rachel looked toward Olivia.

She had heard it, too.

When Derek returned to the call, his voice sounded almost pleasant.

"There's a simple way to solve everything. Come back, sign the papers, and we'll put this behind us."

Rachel closed her eyes.

There was the man she'd once loved.

The man who could make threats sound like promises.

"No."

Derek's voice sharpened.

"What?"

"I'm not signing anything. My attorney will handle any legitimate financial or parenting matters."

"Rachel—"

She ended the call.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Ethan looked at her.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded.

Her hands were trembling.

But she'd said no.

And for once, Derek hadn't been able to punish her immediately.

Olivia saved the call recording and contacted the investigators handling the financial case.

The unknown man in the background might have been Marcus Bell.

But voice identification would require additional evidence.

Rachel looked toward Sophie.

"I need to know what Derek did with the money."

Ethan nodded.

"So do I."

Then Olivia's phone rang.

A detective had contacted her with an update.

A property owned by Walsh Capital had been identified through the transactions recovered from the twenty-third-floor office.

It was a private medical recovery center outside Chicago.

The property had been leased eight months earlier.

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And records showed that Daniel Callahan had been registered there under a false name.

👉 Investigators had traced Daniel to a private medical facility outside Chicago, but the records suggested Derek had arranged for him to be transferred shortly before the search.