Chapter 5
Nobody touched the food.
Police removed the tray and questioned the hotel employee.
He knew nothing.
Someone had ordered the meal by phone and paid using a prepaid card.
Arthur stood in the hallway while officers searched the floor.
Daniel was playing with him.
That frightened Arthur more than any direct threat.
Daniel wanted him afraid.
Wanted him exhausted.
Wanted him to make mistakes.
Arthur returned to the room.
Ethan was awake.
“Was it him?”
Arthur sat beside his son.
“Probably.”
“Is Uncle Daniel bad?”
Arthur struggled with the question.
“He’s doing bad things.”
“That means he’s bad.”
Arthur looked at Maya sleeping nearby.
“Maybe.”
Ethan crossed his arms.
“Victoria used to say people can hurt you and still love you.”
Arthur’s heart sank.
“No.”
Ethan looked at him.
“No?”
“Love doesn’t make hurting someone acceptable.”
Ethan seemed to absorb that.
Then he whispered, “Okay.”
The next morning, Arthur received a call from Detective Harris.
They had found something.
Victoria had finally agreed to cooperate.
Arthur met Harris downstairs while another officer remained with the children.
“She gave us an address,” Harris said.
“Daniel?”
“She says it’s where they met.”
Arthur wanted to go.
Harris refused.
“We’ll search it.”
An hour later, police entered an abandoned office building across town.
Daniel was not there.
But they found computers.
Files.
Photos.
And years of information about Arthur.
Arthur’s company records.
His father’s medical history.
His children’s school schedules.
Even pictures from Arthur’s wedding.
Harris showed Arthur several photographs.
One made him stop.
Daniel was standing beside Victoria outside a restaurant.
The date was only three weeks after Arthur and Victoria became engaged.
Arthur felt sick.
“She knew him before she married me.”
“Yes.”
“So the marriage was part of this?”
“It appears possible.”
Arthur returned upstairs.
Maya was coloring.
Ethan was watching television.
Arthur looked at them and realized nearly every happy memory from the last two years now felt poisoned.
Victoria had attended Maya’s preschool graduation.
She had helped Ethan decorate a birthday cake.
She had sat beside Arthur on Christmas morning.
Had all of it been fake?
His phone buzzed.
A message from Victoria.
Please come talk to me.
Arthur almost deleted it.
Then another message arrived.
There is something Daniel never told me until last month. It involves your mother.
Arthur stopped.
Their mother had died when Arthur was sixteen and Daniel was twenty.
Car accident.
Daniel had always blamed their father for making her drive home during a storm after an argument.
Arthur agreed to meet Victoria at the police station.
She sat behind glass.
No makeup.
No confidence.
She looked smaller.
Arthur picked up the phone.
“Talk.”
Victoria swallowed.
“Daniel believes your mother didn’t die by accident.”
Arthur stared at her.
“He says your father caused it.”
“My father loved her.”
“Daniel says he found proof.”
“What proof?”
“A recording.”
Arthur shook his head.
“This is another manipulation.”
“I thought so too.”
“Thought?”
Victoria reached into a folder.
The officer beside her passed something through the evidence slot.
An old cassette tape.
Arthur stared at it.
Written across the label were two words.
For Daniel.
Arthur recognized the handwriting immediately.
His mother’s.
Victoria whispered, “Daniel says she recorded it the night before she died.”
Arthur did not touch the tape.
“What’s on it?”
Victoria’s face changed.
“I only heard the first minute.”
“And?”
“She said she was afraid.”
Arthur’s breathing slowed.
“Of my father?”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
May you like
Victoria looked directly at him.
“She said she was afraid of Daniel.”
