Chapter 12 - The Letter She Never Wrote
Daniel read the letter aloud once.
Then he could not make himself read it again.
It claimed Emily had been unhappy for months.
It said she had taken money because she needed “a new life.”
It said the baby might not be Daniel’s.
That line made Emily stand so quickly her chair scraped backward.
“Oh, no.”
Daniel looked at her. “I don’t believe this.”
“I know.”
“Emily—”
“I know you don’t believe it.”
She pressed both hands against the edge of the table.
“But she wrote this. She sat somewhere and planned exactly which lie would hurt the most.”
Peter stared at the floor.
Daniel turned on him.
“When were you going to tell me?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Why now?”
“Because she told me to destroy the records and let you blame Emily. Then she tried to move the two hundred forty thousand without telling me.”
Peter laughed bitterly.
“I finally figured out I wasn’t helping family. I was next.”
Detective Ruiz arrived with two officers.
Peter agreed to go with them and speak through a lawyer. Before he left, he gave Ruiz the name of a storage unit Margaret had rented under Hale Property Services.
After the door closed, Emily sat on the couch.
Daniel knelt in front of her.
“I should have protected you.”
Emily shook her head.
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hearing what you should have done.”
He looked up.
“I want to know what you will do now.”
Daniel nodded.
“Everything I should have done the first time you told me she made you uncomfortable.”
“Such as?”
“No excuses. No secret meetings with her. No giving her access because I feel guilty. No asking you to forgive something just because I’m tired of conflict.”
Emily watched him closely.
“And therapy.”
He blinked.
“For you.”
“I’ll go.”
“For us too.”
“Yes.”
She exhaled.
That answer mattered more than any speech.
Her phone buzzed.
A new email had arrived from an address she did not recognize.
Subject: YOU SHOULD KNOW WHO YOU MARRIED.
Emily opened it.
One attachment.
A photograph of Daniel standing outside a hotel with Margaret and another woman.
The date was six months earlier.
Emily stared at it.
“Daniel.”
He looked over her shoulder.
His face changed.
“I can explain that.”
May you like
Emily turned slowly toward him.
“Then start.”
