Chapter 5 - My Husband's Silence
“Tell me you didn't vote against me.”
Daniel stood at the kitchen island, his tie hanging loose. He looked exhausted, but exhaustion had become his favorite defense.
“I abstained.”
“That's a yes with better manners.”
“Emma, they believe you're leaking confidential records.”
“I am exposing missing money.”
“You copied protected files.”
“Files with forged signatures. Mine included.”
He glanced toward the hallway, where the housekeeper had just passed. “Lower your voice.”
“Why? Is your mother recording this room too?”
His face changed.
I watched the answer arrive before his words. “What did you find?”
“Nothing you can talk your way out of.”
I went upstairs and packed a weekend bag. Daniel followed, standing in the doorway while I folded maternity clothes.
“You shouldn't go anywhere alone,” he said.
“Are you worried about me or what I'll discover?”
He sat on the edge of the bed. “There's something I should have told you about Rose.”
I stopped packing.
“Before we married, I worked for the family foundation. I was twenty-two. A woman came to the office claiming her baby had been taken. Rose. I met her in the lobby.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave her the legal department's number.”
“And?”
“Dad told me she'd been discharged with psychiatric concerns. That she was confused.”
“You believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That answer broke something. Not because he had been young, but because fourteen years later he was still protecting the same convenient story.
He reached for my hand. “I didn't know Claire was her daughter.”
“Do you know where the money went?”
“No.”
It was too quick.
I lifted the bag. “I won't come back until you can tell me the truth.”
He stood aside.
At Naomi's office that evening, I found a message waiting from a blocked number. It contained a photograph of Daniel in a parking garage beside Meredith Price. Between them was a thick envelope stamped STERLING TRUST.
The caption read: ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHAT HE SIGNED ON APRIL 9.
May you like
April 9 was the day we'd seen our baby's first heartbeat.
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