“He will panic or he will try to finish the job,” she said plainly.
I swallowed hard. “Can we go to the police?”
“Not yet. He has too much influence and time to spin a story about your mental health,” she warned.
She looked at Toby sleeping on the couch. “We need to build a case that he cannot charm his way out of,” she said.
She motioned toward a small back room. “You stay here tonight. It is locked and it is safe,” she promised.
I hesitated at the door. “Why are you doing all of this for us?”
Sarah’s face softened for a moment. “Because your father saved my life when my own husband tried to hurt me,” she said.
“I know exactly what this feels like, Ayira,” she continued.
I stayed awake all night with Toby curled against me. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the fire.
At dawn, Sarah knocked on the door. “Turn on the news,” she said.
We watched the footage of our house in silence. It was a blackened shell.
Then the camera cut to Dominic. He stood in front of the wreckage with a look of practiced horror on his face.
“My wife and my son were in there,” he sobbed for the cameras.
Then he asked a question that made my skin crawl. “Have you found the bodies yet?” he asked.
Sarah clicked the television off. “He is performing for an audience,” she said.
“Ayira, does Dominic have a safe in his home office?” she asked.
“Yes, it is hidden behind a bookshelf,” I replied.
“Do you know the code?” she pressed.
“It is his birthday,” I said.
Sarah nodded. “We need what is inside that safe before it disappears,” she said.
“The police are there,” I argued.
“They will secure the perimeter but they won’t stay inside a charred ruin all night,” she countered.
“Dominic will be at a hotel pretending to grieve,” she added.
Toby sat up on the bed. “I am going with you,” he said firmly.
“No, it is too dangerous,” I told him.
“Mom, I know where he hides the extra things. I watch him,” the boy said.
Sarah looked at me and then at the child. “He is right. We don’t have time for hesitation,” she said.
I looked at my brave son. “Okay, but you stay with me every second,” I warned.
We left after the sun went down. Sarah drove us back to the neighborhood but parked several blocks away.
“You have twenty minutes. If I honk the horn, you run,” she said.
Toby and I moved through the shadows of the backyards. The smell of the house was even worse now.
The back door was warped but I managed to push it open. Inside, the house was a graveyard of our memories.
We climbed the stairs carefully because the wood was soaked and weak. We reached the office and I shoved the door open.
The safe was visible because the bookshelf had burned away. I punched in the numbers.
Green light. The door swung open.
Inside were stacks of cash and a burner phone. There was also a small black ledger.
“Take it all,” I whispered.
Toby knelt by a loose floorboard in the corner. He pried it up and pulled out an envelope.
“There is more here,” he whispered.
That was when we heard heavy footsteps on the floor below us.
“Boss said to make sure no one left anything behind,” a man’s voice echoed.
“The safe is open,” another man shouted from the hallway.
Toby’s eyes were wide with terror. We slipped into the closet and pulled the door shut just as a flashlight beam swept the room.
“Footprints,” the man said. “Small ones.”
“Call Dominic right now,” the other one ordered.
From outside, we heard a woman scream. It was Sarah.
The men cursed and ran toward the stairs. I did not wait a second longer.
We bolted out the back and ran through the dark until we reached the car. Sarah was already inside with the engine running.
“Did you get the ledger?” she gasped.
I showed her the backpack. We sped away into the night.
Back at the office, we opened the ledger. It contained dates, names, and amounts.
“Final solution,” one entry read. “Insurance payout. Fire set for Thursday.”
He had written his own confession. Sarah smiled a cold and satisfied smile.
“He thought he was too smart to get caught,” she said.
By morning, the local detectives had the evidence. I sent one final text to Dominic.
“Meet me at the park fountain at noon. Bring the money,” I wrote.
He agreed instantly. He thought he could still fix his mistake.
I sat on the bench with a wire taped to my skin. Dominic approached me with a look of false relief.
“Ayira, thank God you are okay,” he began to lie.
“I know everything, Dominic,” I said calmly.
His face transformed into something monstrous. He realized his mask had slipped forever.
He reached for a knife in his pocket. “You ruined everything,” he hissed.
But the police were already moving in from every direction. The struggle was short and violent.
It was finally over.
The trial lasted months, but the evidence was undeniable. Dominic went to prison for a very long time.
Years later, Toby and I live in a small cottage near the coast. It is not fancy, but it is ours.
Toby sleeps through the night now. Sometimes he asks if I really believed him at the airport.
“I believed you, and I always will,” I tell him.
Because the smallest voice in the room was the only one telling the truth.
THE END.
