Chapter 9 - TABITHA HAD BEEN WATCHING ETHAN BEFORE THEY EVER METThe video came from an old home-security archive.
Rebecca remembered the argument as soon as detectives showed her a still image.
Ethan standing in the kitchen.
Rebecca crying.
Both exhausted.
Lucas had been three months old.
Rebecca had not slept more than four hours at a time for weeks.
Ethan was traveling constantly.
They fought.
In the full recording, Ethan said:
“You don’t trust me with my own son.”
Rebecca answered:
“You’re never here long enough to know what he needs.”
Ethan slammed a cabinet.
Not at Rebecca.
Not near her.
Still angry.
Rebecca said:
“Stop.”
Ethan immediately stepped back.
Then apologized.
The argument lasted eleven minutes.
The edited version Tabitha planned to submit was forty-two seconds.
It began with the cabinet slam.
It ended before Ethan apologized.
Rebecca looked at Rachel.
“That’s what they were going to use?”
“Yes.”
“To say what?”
“That the Mercer home had a history of volatile parental conflict.”
Rebecca almost laughed.
“Six years ago.”
“When Lucas was a baby.”
“Before Tabitha.”
“Yes.”
“How did she get it?”
That question became the focus.
The old security provider had retained cloud backups for two years, then deleted them.
The copy did not come from the provider.
Ethan had once downloaded home-camera archives during the divorce because both attorneys requested records after allegations about household instability.
Rebecca remembered.
Her former divorce lawyer had copies.
So did Ethan’s.
Ethan’s lawyer at the time?
Caleb Shore.
Rebecca felt cold.
“Caleb had it.”
Rachel nodded.
Caleb admitted he gave Tabitha access to old case archives.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why?”
“She said Ethan wanted to review family records.”
“Did Ethan?”
“No.”
“So you gave private divorce footage to his new wife without permission.”
Caleb looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
But Tabitha’s relationship with Ethan began three years earlier.
So the video did not prove she knew him before they met.
Then investigators found something else.
A payment from Tabitha’s old consulting business to Shore Strategic.
Dated four months before Ethan and Tabitha’s first public date.
Rebecca stared.
“What was she paying Caleb for?”
Caleb initially called it estate consulting.
Then records showed emails.
Tabitha:
Is he still planning to amend the company shares after the divorce?
Caleb:
Do not ask questions like this by email.
Rebecca’s face hardened.
This was before Ethan met Tabitha socially.
At least according to the story everyone knew.
Further messages were deleted.
Digital forensics recovered fragments.
Caleb:
He will be at the Belle Meade fundraiser.
Tabitha:
Alone?
Caleb:
Most likely.
Rebecca stopped.
The Belle Meade fundraiser.
That was where Ethan always said he met Tabitha.
Not chance.
Caleb arranged it.
Why?
He was already working on Northline acquisition strategy?
Northline had not formally approached yet.
But their private interest began earlier.
Caleb admitted.
“Northline asked me to understand Ethan’s succession plans.”
Rebecca stared.
“You introduced him to a woman because a buyer wanted information?”
“No.”
Caleb shook his head.
“I told Tabitha he would be there.”
“Why Tabitha?”
“She knew people.”
“Could get close.”
“You were using her.”
Caleb didn’t answer.
Investigators asked whether Tabitha knew the purpose.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Ethan believed he met Tabitha at a charity event.
She had already researched him.
His divorce.
His company.
His child.
His trust planning.
Rebecca felt almost physically sick.
Then Caleb tried to distinguish what happened later.
“She didn’t marry him because Northline ordered her to.”
No one had said that.
“Then why?”
“I think she actually loved him.”
Rebecca stared.
Caleb continued.
“The original plan was information.”
“Industry conversations.”
“Nothing illegal at first.”
“Then they became involved.”
“Ethan proposed.”
“Tabitha stopped reporting to me for almost a year.”
“What changed?”
“Money.”
“Northline renewed interest.”
“Tabitha’s business failed.”
“She came back.”
This version was plausible.
Messier than a perfect long con.
Human greed layered over genuine attachment.
Rebecca could believe that more.
“Did Ethan ever discover you arranged the introduction?”
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
That hurt in a different way.
Ethan died believing his marriage began by chance.
Then Rachel found a note in the blue ledger.
Ask T. how she knew Belle Meade guest list.
Ethan had begun wondering.
Maybe he was closer than Caleb realized.
Another note:
C says coincidence. Not convincing.
C = Caleb?
Likely.
Then:
If T. knew me before meeting me, what else did she know?
Rebecca stared.
Ethan had started unraveling the origin of his own marriage.
His Memphis trip was partly business.
But his itinerary showed one extra meeting.
A private investigator named Walter Dane.
Rebecca called him.
He remembered Ethan.
“He hired me to look into his wife.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before the plane crash.”
“What did you find?”
Walter became quiet.
“A lot.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you contact anyone after Ethan died?”
“He told me the investigation was confidential.”
“Then he died in an accident.”
“I assumed the matter ended.”
Rebecca understood.
“What did you find?”
Walter said:
“Tabitha knew Caleb before she met Ethan.”
“We know.”
“She also met representatives from Northline.”
“We know.”
“And?”
Walter hesitated.
“She had another relationship.”
Rebecca’s pulse changed.
“With who?”
“Not romantic.”
“Then?”
“A financial one.”
Walter had traced money from Tabitha to a woman named Celeste Ward.
Rebecca didn’t recognize it.
Rachel did.
Celeste Ward was a family-court consultant.
Former custody evaluator.
She had been disciplined years earlier for improperly sharing confidential information.
And now she was listed as the proposed “independent child specialist” in Tabitha’s emergency guardianship petition.
May you like
Rebecca stared.
Nothing about tomorrow’s hearing had been independent at all.
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