Chương 4
Daniel folded his hands.
“I believed the divorce would be finished before we got married.”
“You believed?”
“We had lawyers. Rebecca had agreed.”
“Then what?”
“She changed her mind.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at the countertop.
“We owned property together. There were financial issues.”
“What issues?”
“A house. Investments. Some debt.”
“You told me the divorce had been complete before she died.”
“I know what I told you.”
Megan said, “That sentence is going to get old.”
Daniel ignored her.
Claire said, “Why tell me she died?”
His eyes lifted.
“When we met, I told you I was separated.”
“No. You told me you were widowed.”
“Not the first night.”
Claire frowned.
Memory arrived reluctantly.
A charity dinner in Baltimore.
Daniel had been sitting beside a colleague Claire knew from a hospital board. He had asked her about the terrible chicken. She had said it tasted like a sponge that had recently heard about rosemary.
He laughed.
Later they drank bourbon in the hotel bar.
She remembered asking if he had children.
No.
Married?
He had paused.
“It’s complicated,” he had said.
Or had she supplied that memory now?
Daniel continued.
“A few weeks later, you told me about your father.”
Claire’s shoulders went rigid.
Megan looked between them.
Daniel said, “You told me what it did to your mother when she found out he’d been seeing someone else for years. You said you would never be involved with a married man.”
“So you solved that by killing your wife.”
“On paper. In a story. I panicked.”
“You invented a car accident.”
“I know.”
“You showed me a memorial page.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“That page was real.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“It wasn’t Rebecca.”
A strange pressure started behind Claire’s eyes.
“Whose memorial page did you show me?”
“Her cousin.”
Megan took a step forward.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding.”
“Her cousin had the same first name. Rebecca Hayes. The page didn’t say Mercer.”
Claire remembered the photograph.
A brunette woman.
Water behind her.
Daniel had held the phone loosely, not close enough for her to study.
“Did Rebecca’s cousin actually die?”
“Yes.”
“In a car accident?”
“Yes.”
Claire pushed back from the island.
Her chair legs scraped.
Daniel said, “Claire—”
“You used a dead woman.”
“I was ashamed.”
“No. Shame happens after.”
He flinched.
Claire stood and walked to the sink.
Outside the window, their backyard was black except for the reflection of the kitchen lights.
Daniel had built the cedar planters along the fence himself.
He had spent an entire Saturday swearing at the level.
Claire had brought him lemonade and told him the tomatoes did not care whether they lived at a mathematically correct angle.
That life still existed in her memory.
That was the cruelty.
The good parts did not disappear when the truth arrived.
They became evidence in a trial with no judge.
“Did Rebecca know about me?” Claire asked.
Daniel hesitated.
Claire turned.
“How long?”
“She knew I was seeing someone.”
“How long?”
“Early.”
“How early?”
“Before we got engaged.”
Megan closed her eyes.
Claire gripped the edge of the sink.
“Did she know we got married?”
“Yes.”
“And she let you?”
“She believed you knew.”
Claire laughed once.
“You two are incredible.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Everything is apparently not like what it is.”
Daniel stood.
“Rebecca and I had an arrangement.”
“What arrangement?”
“We lived separate lives. We were financially tied together. We stayed legally married while we worked things out.”
“For eleven years?”
“It became complicated.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
Claire watched him.
“Since you met me?”
“No.”
“Do not answer quickly because you think speed sounds truthful.”
His face tightened.
“I have not slept with Rebecca since before I met you.”
Megan said, “And we’re meant to trust the guy who fabricated a fatal collision?”
Daniel looked at her.
“No. You’re not.”
That silenced the room.
Claire turned back toward him.
For the first time that night, he looked less like a man trying to control damage and more like someone standing inside it.
It did not make her forgive him.
It only made him human again, which was inconvenient.
“What happened tonight?” she asked.
Daniel sat down.
“The restaurant account was old. Rebecca and I used to come there.”
“Our anniversary restaurant.”
“I didn’t think about the account.”
“That is almost worse.”
“I used my number when I booked. Somehow the reservation attached to the old household profile. She still gets some of the emails.”
“So she saw our reservation.”
“I assume.”
“And called.”
“Yes.”
“Why pay?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire looked at the receipt.
“She wanted me to know.”
Daniel’s silence answered.
Megan said, “Did you know she might do this?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten to tell Claire?”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“Recently.”
Claire felt the room shift.
“Recently when?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Her anniversary card upstairs seemed suddenly obscene.
“What happened two weeks ago?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I told Rebecca I was filing for divorce whether she cooperated or not.”
Claire stared.
“Why now?”
He hesitated again.
Too many hesitations.
“Because of the estate planning meeting.”
Claire remembered.
Their financial adviser had suggested updating wills, health directives, retirement beneficiaries. Claire had been putting it off for almost a year.
Two months earlier she finally scheduled appointments.
The attorney had asked for copies of their marriage certificate.
Daniel had said he would handle it.
A small detail.
A clue that had sat in the open because there had been no reason to suspect it.
Claire whispered, “You couldn’t give them the marriage certificate.”
“I could.”
“Could you?”
“Our certificate exists.”
“Is our marriage legal?”
Daniel did not answer.
Megan said, “Daniel.”
“I don’t know.”
Claire actually smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
The face sometimes chose badly.
“You don’t know if I’m your wife.”
“I knew there could be a problem.”
“A problem.”
May you like
“I was trying to resolve it.”
“You were trying to divorce Rebecca before the lawyer discovered you were already married.”
