Photos of expensive jewelry, designer handbags, and luxury hotel receipts filled the screen. All were purchased during times when Olivia claimed to be visiting her sister in Phoenix or shopping with friends in Chicago. «Miguel wasn’t just our gardener, Dad. They’d been having an affair for eight months. These hotel receipts show they were meeting twice a week, sometimes three times. Always on my credit card.»
My hands clenched into fists. «She was spending your money to cheat on you.»
«It gets worse,» Richard’s voice was steady, but I could see the pain behind his eyes. «When the FBI investigation started and I told Olivia I might have to enter witness protection, she didn’t just agree to come with me. She encouraged it. Said it would be an adventure, a chance to start fresh. But look at this.»
He opened a new folder filled with more screenshots: text messages between Olivia and someone named Marcus Financial Services. «She was already talking to a private investigator, Dad. Not to help protect me from Crawford’s people, but to gather evidence that I was mentally unstable. Look at these messages.»
I leaned closer to read. The messages were cold, calculating. Olivia was describing Richard’s anxiety, his drinking, and his erratic behavior since becoming a whistleblower. She was building a case that he was having a mental breakdown, that he might hurt himself or others.
«She was going to have me committed. Worse than that, she was setting up a scenario where my death would look like suicide. A mentally disturbed whistleblower who couldn’t handle the pressure and took his own life. She even researched how to make it look like I’d been planning it for months.»
Richard clicked to another file. It showed financial documents revealing Olivia had taken out additional life insurance policies on him without his knowledge. Policies worth over $1 million in total, all with suicide clauses that would still pay out if he waited two years after the policy date.
«She’s been planning this for two years, Dad. Long before the Meridian situation. She married me, convinced me to take out massive life insurance, and then waited for the perfect opportunity to cash in.»
The room seemed to spin around me. This wasn’t just betrayal or even greed. This was something much more sinister. «She was planning to murder you or drive you to suicide, which would be cleaner legally. The private investigator was documenting everything to support her story: stressed businessman, money problems, legal troubles, history of depression. It would have been an open-and-shut case.»
I stood up abruptly, pacing to the window. Outside, the neighborhood looked peaceful, normal. Inside this kitchen, I was learning that my daughter-in-law was essentially a predator who’d spent years planning to kill my son for money.
«But then you faked your death first.»
«Dr. Peterson’s plan gave me an unexpected advantage. Olivia thought she’d won. She got her insurance money without having to commit actual murder. She could play the tragic widow, collect her payoff, and start her new life with Miguel without any blood on her hands.»
Richard pulled up another screen showing bank activity. «She wasted no time. Insurance money was deposited on Monday. $50,000 was transferred to Miguel’s account on Tuesday. Plane tickets to Cancun were purchased Wednesday morning. She was out of the country before my body was even cold.»
«Except your body was never cold because you were never dead.»
«Exactly. And here’s where it gets interesting,» Richard’s expression shifted, becoming more calculating. «Olivia doesn’t know that I’m alive, but she also doesn’t know that I found all this evidence before I ‘died.’ She thinks she covered her tracks perfectly.»
He opened a new folder labeled «Insurance Fraud Evidence.» The contents made my breath catch. Richard had documented everything: the forged applications, the unauthorized policies, the payments to the private investigator, the affair with Miguel. There was even communication showing Olivia had researched methods of murder that would look like accidents.
«She committed multiple felonies, Dad. Insurance fraud. Conspiracy to commit murder. Theft. Adultery with financial implications for the divorce proceedings she was planning to avoid by becoming a widow.»
Richard closed the laptop. «The question is, what do we do with all this information?»
I sat back down, my mind racing. «We could go to the police. Have her arrested for fraud.»
«We could. But there’s a problem with that approach,» Richard leaned against the counter. «If I reveal that I’m alive, I have to explain why I faked my death. Dr. Peterson could lose his license, maybe go to prison for falsifying records. The FBI witness protection people will be furious that I went off-script. And Crawford’s people will know exactly where to find me.»
«So we’re stuck.»
«Not stuck. We just need to be smarter about this,» Richard sat back down across from me. «Olivia thinks she’s won. She’s got her money, her lover, and her freedom. She’s probably planning to stay in Mexico for a few months, let the grief period pass. Then come back and sell the house, liquidate everything else, and disappear forever.»
«What’s stopping her?»
«Well, technically, she can’t sell the house or access most of our shared assets while I’m legally dead. The estate has to go through probate, which takes months. But she’s got the life insurance money, so she figures she can wait,» Richard smiled grimly. «What she doesn’t know is that I documented her fraud before I died, and dead men can still file insurance claims disputes.»
I stared at my son, seeing a side of him I’d never witnessed before. The anxious, overwhelmed man I’d worried about for months had been replaced by someone harder, more strategic.
«What are you planning, Richard?»
«I’m planning to let Olivia enjoy her vacation for exactly two more weeks. Let her get comfortable, spend some money, make some plans. And then I’m going to systematically destroy every lie she’s built.»
He opened the laptop again. «I’ve already filed disputes with all three insurance companies, claiming fraud. The investigations will freeze her accounts within days of being initiated.»
«Can you do that while you’re dead?»
«I set up the disputes before I died, with instructions for my lawyer to file them if certain conditions were met. As far as the insurance companies know, Richard Morrison suspected his wife was planning to kill him and took precautions.»
He pulled up legal documents. «I also changed my will the day before I died, leaving everything to you and cutting Olivia out completely due to suspected infidelity and financial impropriety.»
The scope of Richard’s planning was staggering. «You’ve thought of everything.»
«Not everything. I didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to post photos of herself partying in Mexico three days after my funeral. That was a gift I couldn’t have planned for,» Richard’s smile was cold. «Those photos, combined with the financial records showing money transfers to Miguel, will make the insurance fraud case airtight.»
«What about Miguel? He’s complicit in this.»
«Miguel’s the least of our problems. He’s just a guy who thought he was dating a rich widow. When Olivia’s money disappears and the fraud charges hit, he’ll disappear too. Men like Miguel don’t stick around for poor women with legal problems.»
I looked at my son with a mixture of pride and concern. «This is a dangerous game, Richard. What if Olivia figures out you’re alive?»
«Then we accelerate the timeline. But I don’t think she will. She’s too busy celebrating her victory to question it,» he closed the laptop again. «Besides, Dad, she’s already made her biggest mistake.»
«Which is?»
«She underestimated both of us. She thought you were just a sad old man who’d grieve quietly and never ask questions. She thought I was too weak and anxious to ever fight back,» Richard’s eyes hardened. «She was wrong on both counts.»
I felt something settle in my chest, a calm determination I hadn’t experienced in years. «What do you need me to do?»
«For now, just keep being the grieving father. Don’t change anything about your routine. But in two weeks, when the insurance companies freeze her accounts and she comes running back demanding answers, I need you to be ready.»
Richard met my eyes. «Because that’s when we spring the trap. And that’s when Olivia learns that some games have consequences she never saw coming.»
The two weeks that followed were the longest of my life. I had to continue playing the role of the grieving father while knowing my son was alive and hiding just twenty minutes away in a small apartment he’d rented under a false name. Every day felt like walking on a tightrope, maintaining the facade while helping Richard orchestrate what he called «Olivia’s reckoning.»
I visited Richard’s grave twice a week, just as a bereaved father would. I brought flowers, stood there for appropriate amounts of time, and even talked to the headstone when other visitors were nearby. It felt obscene, performing grief over an empty coffin, but it was necessary.
Several neighbors and family friends approached me during these visits, offering condolences and asking about Olivia’s well-being. «Such a tragedy,» Mrs. Henderson from down the street said during one visit. «Poor Olivia, losing Richard so young. Is she holding up all right? I haven’t seen her around.»
«She’s taking some time away,» I replied, the lie sliding out easier than I expected. «Staying with family. The grief has been overwhelming for her.»
What I didn’t tell Mrs. Henderson was that I’d been monitoring Olivia’s social media obsessively. The Cancun photos continued: beachside dinners, sunset cocktails, spa treatments, shopping sprees. Miguel featured in most of them, sometimes with his arm around her, sometimes kissing her cheek. The comments from her friends had evolved from sympathy for her «loss» to celebration of her «healing journey.»
Her sister posted, «So proud of you for choosing happiness. Richard would want you to live your best life.» That comment made me want to throw my phone across the room.
Richard had been busy during those two weeks. From his temporary apartment, he’d been feeding information to insurance investigators, providing them with time-stamped evidence of Olivia’s affair, her suspicious financial activities, and most damning, her social media posts showing her celebrating in Mexico days after her husband’s funeral.
«The investigators are calling it one of the most clear-cut cases of insurance fraud they’ve ever seen,» Richard told me during one of our secret meetings at a diner outside town. He looked healthier now, having gained back some weight and lost the haunted expression he’d worn that first night. «Three insurance companies, $1.7 million in fraudulent claims, and she’s literally posting evidence of her crimes online.»
«When do they act?»
«Today, actually. The accounts should be frozen by this afternoon. Olivia’s going to wake up tomorrow morning unable to access any of her money,» Richard stirred his coffee slowly. «I estimate she’s already spent close to $80,000 in Cancun. When she can’t pay for her hotel room, reality is going to hit pretty hard.»
«What if she just stays in Mexico and disappears?»
«She can’t. Miguel doesn’t have that kind of money, and without access to the insurance funds, she’s essentially broke. Her credit cards are tied to accounts that are about to be frozen. She’ll have to come back and face the consequences.»
Richard was right. On Thursday afternoon, my phone started buzzing with calls from a number I recognized: Olivia’s cell phone. I let them all go to voicemail. By evening, I had twelve increasingly frantic messages.
The first few were confused. «Timothy, something’s wrong with my bank accounts. Can you call me, please?» By the seventh message, panic had crept in. «Timothy, I’m stuck in Mexico. The hotel is saying my cards aren’t working. I need you to wire me some money until I can figure this out.»
The final messages were desperate. «Please, Timothy, I know you’re getting these. I’m scared. Something’s happening, and I don’t understand. They’re saying I can’t leave the country until I settle my bills. Please help me.»
I played each message for Richard the next morning. He listened with an expression I couldn’t quite read—not satisfaction, exactly, but a grim sense of justice being served.
«She’s really panicking,» I observed.
«Good. She should be,» Richard closed his laptop where he’d been monitoring news feeds about insurance fraud investigations. «The FBI contacted me yesterday. Well, they contacted my lawyer claiming to represent my estate. They want to interview the surviving family members about possible financial irregularities involving the deceased’s wife.»
«They want to interview me and Olivia once she’s back in the country, which, according to the Mexican authorities, should be very soon. They’re not going to hold her indefinitely, but they are requiring her to settle her debts before leaving.»
«How is she going to do that without access to her accounts?»
