Chapter 8 - RACHEL FINDS THE BACKUP DRIVE
My sister Rachel was not supposed to search my house.
She did.
We fought about it.
“You told me something was missing.”
“That does not mean go digging through Ivan’s closet.”
“You’re welcome.”
She placed a small external hard drive on my kitchen table.
I did not recognize it.
Label:
PARKER OUTDOOR — ARCHIVE.
“Where?”
“Top shelf behind winter blankets.”
I called Lena before opening.
Good.
Police collected it through proper process because it could contain business material tied to the suspected forgery.
Days later, forensic review showed:
Loan drafts.
Scanned signatures.
Tax returns.
Photos of my driver’s license.
My father’s deed.
Then a folder:
MEGAN.
Inside:
Photographs.
Not sexual.
Worse in a different way.
Me crying in the kitchen.
Me asleep on the couch with wine on the table.
Me yelling during an argument, taken from a hallway camera I did not know Ivan had activated.
Screenshots of angry texts.
A list:
INCIDENTS.
January 14 — threw mug.
February 2 — screaming, “I hate you.”
March 19 — left home 1:30 a.m.
April 8 — drinking alone.
Some true.
Some missing context.
Why document me?
Divorce?
Leverage?
Then a draft letter addressed to a psychiatrist I had never met.
Concern regarding spouse instability and possible substance misuse.
I stared.
“He was building a file.”
Rachel looked sick.
“For what?”
May you like
We did not know yet.
Not fully.
