Chương 5
“And?”
“I found unusual activity.”
“From who?”
He looked at the papers.
“I never found a name.”
A pause.
“Emily did.”
The room went silent.
“How?”
Marcus looked at me.
“She asked me to check the security logs from the office.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What did she find?”
He hesitated.
“Someone entered your office the night before she died.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
Marcus opened another file.
Then he said the name that made everything inside me stop.
“Your brother.”
The room seemed to tilt.
For a moment, I heard nothing except the blood moving in my ears.
Marcus was still speaking, but his words arrived slowly.
Like someone talking through a closed door.
“Your brother used his old access card.”
I stared at him.
“Daniel doesn’t work for me.”
“I know.”
“Then why would he be in my office?”
Marcus folded his hands.
“That’s what I was hoping you could answer.”
I thought about Daniel’s face when he handed me the flash drive.
The way he looked at me when he said Emily was investigating me.
The way he acted like he was carrying guilt.
Maybe because he was.
Maybe because he knew exactly what happened.
I left Marcus’s office with more questions than answers.
That had become my new normal.
Every person I trusted seemed to have a locked room somewhere.
The drive home felt longer than usual.
I passed the elementary school where Ava used to beg me to stop for ice cream after pickup.
I passed the park where Emily taught her to ride a bike.
Small places had become dangerous.
Not because they changed.
Because I did.
My mother was sitting at my kitchen table when I arrived.
Ava was drawing beside her.
Lucas was asleep in a portable crib near the window.
My mother looked up immediately.
She could always tell when something was wrong.
Even when I was thirty-eight years old, I still felt like a teenager caught doing something stupid when she looked at me that way.
“What happened?”
I placed my keys down.
“Daniel was involved.”
Her face changed.
Not surprise.
Fear.
That was enough.
“You knew something.”
She looked away.
“Mom.”
She closed her eyes.
“Your brother told me not to say anything.”
I laughed quietly.
Another person.
Another secret.
Another decision made for me.
“Everyone keeps protecting me by lying.”
My mother’s expression softened.
“We were protecting you from breaking.”
“I already broke.”
Ava looked up from her drawing.
“Daddy?”
I immediately lowered my voice.
“Sorry, sweetheart.”
She watched me carefully.
Children notice when adults apologize to them but not to each other.
My mother reached for my hand.
“Daniel came to me after Emily died.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Emily was afraid.”
“Of what?”
My mother hesitated.
That hesitation hurt.
“Of losing you.”
I looked at her.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“She thought you would choose the company over your family.”
The words felt unfair.
Because part of me wanted to defend myself.
I wanted to say Emily was wrong.
I wanted to say I loved her.
I wanted to list every sacrifice I made.
But then I remembered all the nights I came home after the kids were asleep.
All the dinners I missed.
All the times Emily said, “I don’t need more money, I need more of you.”
And I answered by working harder.
“She was wrong about that,” I said.
My mother did not argue.
She just squeezed my hand.
“That doesn’t mean you were always right.”
The sentence stayed with me.
That night, after Ava and Lucas were asleep, I called Daniel.
He answered after three rings.
“I was wondering when you’d call.”
I sat on the back porch.
The air was cold.
“Marcus said you entered my office.”
Silence.
Not long.
But enough.
“You found out.”
“You did it.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
“You didn’t even ask what I meant.”
“Because I know what you think.”
“What should I think?”
Daniel exhaled.
“I went there because Emily asked me to.”
I closed my eyes.
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I promised her.”
“She’s dead, Daniel.”
The words came out harsher than I intended.
He was quiet.
Then he said something I did not expect.
“I know.”
His voice cracked.
“I know she’s dead.”
The anger left my body for a second.
Not because I forgave him.
Because I heard the grief.
The same grief that lived inside me.
“What happened that night?”
Daniel was quiet for so long I thought the call had dropped.
Then he said,
“She called me at 11:13.”
I looked toward the dark yard.
“What did she say?”
“She said she found proof someone was using your company to move money.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know for sure.”
“Then why did you go to my office?”
“She told me where to look.”
I stood up.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
His voice hardened.
“That’s the problem.”
I waited.
“Someone had already been there.”
My stomach tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“The records she wanted were gone.”
I remembered Marcus.
The security logs.
The access card.
“Then why did the system show you?”
Daniel was silent.
And then I understood.
Someone wanted it to look like him.
“You were framed.”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
“I thought you would believe I did it.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew Patricia was involved.”
I gripped the railing.
“What does Patricia have to do with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why would she be involved?”
Daniel did not answer.
Not right away.
“I need to tell you something about Emily.”
Every time someone said those words, my chest tightened.
“What?”
“She knew Patricia was taking money.”
I looked back through the window at the kitchen.
At the place where Patricia had sat drinking coffee with my mother.
At the place where she had smiled while everyone believed she was helping us.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
“Daniel.”
“She found out about three months before she died.”
