The payment request was addressed to a company called Northbridge Advisory. What frightened me most wasn’t the amount, but the electronic signature attached to the document. It looked exactly like mine. I had never approved the payment, never hired the company, and had never even heard its name. I immediately contacted my father. He told me not to confront Landon or delete anything. Instead, he called a forensic accountant named Daniel Ross and asked him to examine the records. Daniel instructed me to preserve every email, invoice, notification, and message connected to the transaction. I barely slept that night.

The next morning, Landon’s girlfriend, Tessa, called me. She sounded furious and insisted that his company card should remain active because Landon deserved compensation for helping build my business. I asked her what she meant. She replied that Landon had told her he was responsible for the company’s success and that I had always controlled the money unfairly. Her confidence made me realize how carefully he had shaped his story. For years, he had presented himself as the brilliant mind behind my achievements while portraying me as an ungrateful wife. Now I wondered whether those lies had been preparing everyone for something much bigger.