Chương 6
Mara stepped back.
The phone in her pocket felt heavier.
The warning about Ethan.
The voice on the call.
The photograph.
Everything collided at once.
“How did you find me?”
Ethan looked toward the street.
“I’ve always known where you lived.”
The answer made her angry.
“You expect that to make me trust you?”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“I expect you to understand why Daniel was afraid.”
Mara opened the door only a few inches.
Not enough for him to enter.
“Where is my husband?”
Ethan looked at her.
For the first time, she saw something behind his careful expression.
Guilt.
Not fear.
Guilt.
“I don’t know.”
She almost closed the door.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because someone is going to come looking for what you found.”
“Who?”
Ethan looked past her toward the house.
Toward the room where Daniel had left his message.
“I think you already know the answer.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
Mara hated that he sounded certain.
“I don’t know anything anymore.”
That sentence came out quieter than she intended.
Ethan’s expression changed.
Just slightly.
Like he understood something she had not said.
“Daniel never wanted you involved.”
Mara laughed once.
A bitter sound.
“He involved me when he married me.”
Ethan looked down.
“You’re right.”
She studied him.
“Why does everyone keep admitting I’m right after they hurt me?”
He had no answer.
That bothered her.
A person with an excuse was easier to understand.
A person with regret was harder.
Ethan reached into his jacket slowly.
Mara immediately stepped back.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Everyone says that.”
“I know.”
He pulled out a small envelope and held it through the opening.
Mara did not take it.
“What is it?”
“Something Daniel asked me to give you if he didn’t come back.”
Her chest tightened.
“You had this the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me not to give it to you unless you found the room.”
Mara stared at him.
The room.
Not the wall.
Not the house.
The room.
Daniel had known she would return there.
“He knew I would find it?”
“No.”
Ethan looked toward the darkening street.
“He knew you would eventually stop believing the story everyone gave you.”
Mara reached for the envelope.
Her fingers touched the paper.
Before she could open it, Ethan said something that stopped her.
“There is one thing you need to know before you read that.”
“What?”
Ethan looked at her with an expression she could not interpret.
“Daniel lied about the night your father died.”
Mara felt the floor beneath her shift.
Not physically.
Something worse.
Like the last piece of certainty inside her had finally broken.
Mara did not move for several seconds.
The envelope remained between them, caught between her fingers and the edge of the door.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan looked older than he had a moment before.
Not older in years.
Older in exhaustion.
“It means the version of that night you were given was incomplete.”
“My father died.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel was there?”
Ethan did not answer quickly enough.
That was the answer.
Mara opened the door wider, but only because anger had pushed fear aside.
“Get inside.”
Ethan hesitated.
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
The honesty seemed to surprise him.
“But if you’re standing on my porch telling me my husband lied about my father’s death, I think you owe me more than a sentence.”
He stepped inside.
The house suddenly felt unfamiliar with another person in it.
Mara noticed everything she normally ignored.
The stack of mail near the kitchen.
The coat Daniel had left hanging behind the door.
The small crack in the corner of the hallway mirror that she had promised herself she would fix.
Ethan stopped near the living room.
His eyes moved across the space carefully.
“You’ve been here before.”
Mara turned.
“What?”
“Not inside.”
He looked away.
“I mean, Daniel talked about this place.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
“He talked about me?”
Ethan looked at her.
“More than you would think.”
She almost laughed.
“That’s convenient.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel better.”
“Good.”
She placed the envelope on the table.
“I don’t need better.”
The silence between them lasted too long.
Mara hated that she wanted him to fill it.
She hated that she was tired of being the only person willing to say the uncomfortable thing.
“Start talking.”
Ethan sat down but did not relax.
People who relaxed in her house usually belonged there.
He looked like someone waiting for permission to leave.
“Daniel contacted me eight months before he disappeared.”
“Why?”
“Because of your father.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“My father has been dead for years.”
“I know.”
“Then why would Daniel investigate him?”
Ethan looked at the envelope.
“Because Daniel found something that did not make sense.”
“What?”
“A payment.”
Mara waited.
“From Northbridge Financial.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Everyone keeps bringing up that company.”
“Because it connects a lot of things.”
“What things?”
Ethan rubbed his jaw.
“The night your father died.”
Mara looked away.
She had spent years trying not to picture that night.
A phone call.
A hospital hallway.
Her mother crying into both hands.
A doctor using careful words.
The strange emptiness afterward.
She remembered the vending machine near the waiting room because she had stared at it for almost an hour.
She remembered thinking the rows of candy looked too normal for a place where someone’s life had just ended.
“Daniel told me my father had an accident.”
Ethan nodded.
“That is what everyone was told.”
“Was it not?”
He did not answer immediately.
Mara felt anger rising again.
She was becoming tired of people making her drag truth out of them.
“Say it.”
“Your father’s accident was investigated.”
“And?”
“The investigation was closed quickly.”
“That happens.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked down.
“But Daniel found inconsistencies.”
“Such as?”
“Your father’s car was found on a road he rarely used.”
Mara frowned.
May you like
“What does that mean?”
“It means the location did not fit his routine.”
