Chapter 2
The pounding got louder.
The wood of the door rattled in its frame.
I looked at the envelope, then at the man beside me—Jake, the private investigator I’d hired three months earlier.
“Open it,” Jake said. “Now. Before he breaks the door down.”
My hands shook as I reached for the lock.
I turned it.
The door flew open.
Daniel stood there, chest heaving, face red with rage and hurt.
Margaret pushed past him before I could speak.
Her eyes landed on Jake, then on the unmade bed behind us, and she let out a sharp, dramatic gasp.
“I knew it,” she shrieked. “Six years of you pretending to be the perfect wife, and this is what you do? In a cheap hotel room?”
“Mom, stop,” Daniel said, but his voice was tight.
His eyes never left mine.
I held up the envelope.
“Daniel, this is not what you think. This man is a PI. I hired him.”
Margaret laughed. It was a cold, sharp sound.
“A PI? Sure, Emily. That’s why you’re in a hotel room alone with him. That’s why you smiled at him in the lobby. You think I’m stupid?”
“Let him read the papers,” Jake said, stepping forward.
He held out the envelope to Daniel.
Margaret slapped it out of his hand.
Papers scattered across the carpet.
Bank statements. Canceled checks. Transfer records.
Daniel stared down at them.
His name was on every page.
Margaret’s face went pale for half a second, then she recovered.
“Forged,” she said quickly. “He forged all of it. She paid him to make these to turn you against me. Daniel, baby, look at me. She’s been planning this for months. She hates that I live so close, that I’m part of your life. She wants me gone.”
I stepped toward Daniel.
“Your father’s estate,” I said, my voice cracking. “The $80,000 that went missing last spring? Everyone said I lost it. That I was careless with the checkbook. That I spent it on stupid things.”
I pointed to the checks on the floor.
“Look at the signature. Look at who the money was transferred to. It was her. She took every dollar.”
Daniel knelt.
He picked up one of the canceled checks.
His hand trembled as he read the name on the back.
Margaret Hale.
His mother’s maiden name.
The account it went to was one she’d kept secret for twenty years.
“That’s not mine,” Margaret said, but her voice was weaker now. “Someone stole my identity. It’s her—she’s had access to our mail for years. She did this.”
“Then why did you follow us here?” Jake asked.
He crossed his arms.
“Why record a ten-second clip of them walking into an elevator, but not the full twenty minutes we spent in this room going over these papers? Because you knew what was in this envelope. You’ve been watching Emily for weeks. You knew she hired me. You knew I was closing in. So you made up the cheating story first. You wanted Daniel so angry he’d never listen to the truth.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel stood slowly.
He held the check in one hand, the rest of the papers in the other.
He looked at his mother.
For the first time, I saw doubt in his eyes.
“Mom?” he said. “Is any of this true?”
Margaret’s lip trembled.
She burst into tears.
She threw her arms around Daniel’s neck, sobbing into his shoulder.
“How can you ask me that?” she wailed. “I raised you alone after your father died. I gave up everything for you. You’re going to believe this stranger and this woman over your own mother?”
Daniel didn’t hug her back.
He stood stiff, the papers crinkling in his fist.
He looked at me over her shoulder.
His eyes were wet.
“Let’s go home,” he said quietly. “All of us. We’re going to sit down, and everyone is going to tell me the whole truth. No more lies. No more secrets.”
He didn’t wait for an answer.
He turned and walked out of the room, the envelope still clutched tight.
Margaret shot me a look over her shoulder.
It was cold.
Calculating.
I knew then this fight was far from over.
Jake touched my arm as I followed them out.
“Call me if you need more,” he said. “I have the rest of the files. She didn’t just steal from the estate, Emily. It goes deeper. Much deeper.”
May you like
I nodded.
I didn’t know then how right he was.
