At the time, I felt guilty for doubting him.
Now I reopened Facebook.
The account still existed.
“David,” I said, “find everything you can about a woman named Jenna Cross.”
Jenna replied at 1:18 a.m.
I had written only:
You warned me about Oliver.
I believe you now.
Please call me.
My phone rang eleven minutes later.
I answered immediately.
A woman's voice whispered, “Did you marry him?”
“Not yet.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Oh God.”
“Jenna?”
“Yes.”
“This is Sharon.”
“I know who you are.”
Her voice was shaking.
I went cold.
“How?”
“Because he's done this before.”
The world narrowed.
“How many times?”
“I know about three.”
I closed my eyes.
“Were you one of them?”
“Yes.”
“What did he take?”
“Everything.”
There was no drama in her voice.
That made it worse.
Jenna told me she had met Oliver four years earlier in Indianapolis.
Except he hadn't called himself Oliver Grant.
He had been
Matthew Cole
.
He told her he worked in logistics.
He charmed her widowed mother.
He volunteered at Jenna's daughter's school.
Within eighteen months, they were engaged.
Then he convinced Jenna to consolidate finances before their wedding.
They never reached the altar.
“He said we were creating a stronger financial foundation,” Jenna told me.
“I transferred money into an account he controlled.
He persuaded me to use my condo as collateral for an investment.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
My breath caught.
“And Sarah?”
Silence.
“She was there?”
“Yes.”
“As his mother?”
Jenna laughed bitterly.
“She called herself Helen.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Different hair.
Different clothes.
But same woman.”
I thought of Sarah.
Her silver bob.
Her tasteful pearl earrings.
The woman who had hugged me after Oliver proposed and whispered that she'd always wanted a daughter.
Jenna continued.
“After they vanished, I discovered everything was fake.
His employer.
His previous address.
Even some documents.”
“Why weren't they arrested?”
“Because most of what happened looked voluntary.
I transferred the money.
I signed papers.
By the time investigators understood the fraud, they'd disappeared.”
“Did you ever learn his real name?”
“No.”
“Then how did you find me?”
“Reverse image search.”
My stomach clenched.
“I've been checking engagement announcements for years.”
