Chương 10
Peter sat back.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he spoke.
“Daniel contacted me two weeks before he died.”
Linda looked up.
Martin went still.
“What?” Martin asked.
Peter ignored him.
“He asked me to do something.”
“What?”
“He asked me to watch someone.”
Linda felt her stomach tighten.
“Who?”
Peter looked at the table.
“Your brother.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
She had not thought of him in months.
Not because she had forgotten him.
Because after Daniel died, her family had become another complicated thing she did not have the energy to fix.
“My brother?”
Peter nodded.
“He thought your brother knew something about the company.”
Linda stared.
“My brother barely knew Daniel’s work.”
“That’s what Daniel thought at first.”
“And then?”
Peter looked away.
“Then he found out your brother had access to information he shouldn’t have had.”
Martin leaned back.
“You knew.”
Peter looked at him.
“I knew Daniel was investigating.”
“You knew the file existed.”
“No.”
“Then why were you watching her brother?”
Peter’s jaw tightened.
“Because Daniel asked me.”
Linda felt something break inside her.
Not trust.
Something before trust.
Something smaller.
Something she had been holding onto.
“You were investigating my family.”
Peter looked at her.
“I was trying to protect you.”
She laughed quietly.
Again, not because anything was funny.
“You all keep using that word.”
Peter flinched.
Good.
She hated that she wanted him to.
Because she was tired of being treated like someone who needed to be managed.
Martin looked toward the door.
“Your brother wasn’t the only person Daniel watched.”
Linda looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Martin hesitated.
“Daniel believed the person closest to the truth was not the person who stole from the company.”
“Who was it?”
Martin looked at Peter.
The answer arrived before anyone spoke.
Linda understood.
She looked at Peter.
“No.”
Peter closed his eyes.
“Linda.”
“No.”
Her voice became quieter.
“That’s not possible.”
Peter did not defend himself.
That frightened her more than if he had.
“Explain.”
Peter looked at his hands.
“The first time Daniel asked me to look into it, I thought he was wrong.”
“About what?”
“About someone inside his circle.”
Linda waited.
“He thought the person responsible was someone he trusted.”
“Did he think it was you?”
Peter shook his head.
“No.”
The answer should have helped.
It did not.
“Then why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
Peter looked at her.
“Because Daniel made me promise.”
There it was again.
Another promise.
Another secret.
Another person deciding that silence was love.
Linda stood.
The chair scraped against the floor.
“I need air.”
Nobody stopped her.
Outside, the night was colder than she expected.
She stood beside the diner wall and looked at the parking lot.
For the first time in hours, she was alone.
Not safe.
Just alone.
She thought about Daniel.
Not the man in the videos.
Not the person everyone seemed to describe.
Her husband.
The man who burned toast because he forgot he was cooking.
The man who kept old receipts in his car because he said one day he might need to remember where he had been.
The man who apologized to strangers when someone else bumped into him.
She wondered how many versions of him existed.
How many parts of his life belonged to other people.
The diner door opened.
Peter stepped outside.
He kept his distance.
“I’m sorry.”
Linda stared at the road.
“I don’t know if I believe that.”
“I know.”
“You always knew what to say.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
Peter shook his head.
“That was Daniel.”
The answer surprised her.
“He always knew how to make things sound better than they were.”
Peter gave a small, tired smile.
“He was terrible at admitting when he was scared.”
Linda looked down.
“Yes.”
They stood quietly.
Then Peter said something she did not expect.
“I failed him.”
She looked at him.
“I don’t mean because he died.”
His voice became rough.
“I mean because he trusted me with something, and I spent months believing keeping a promise mattered more than telling the truth.”
Linda did not answer.
Because she understood that feeling.
She had spent months doing the same thing.
Protecting Daniel’s memory instead of facing what she did not know.
Peter looked toward the diner.
“Whatever happens next, I won’t hide anything else.”
Linda studied him.
“I need to believe that.”
“I know.”
A car turned into the parking lot.
Both of them looked.
It was an old blue sedan.
No one got out.
The headlights stayed on.
Peter moved in front of her.
This time, she did not argue.
The driver’s door opened.
A woman stepped out.
Linda recognized her immediately.
Elaine Porter.
She looked exhausted.
Not powerful.
Not threatening.
Just like someone who had been running out of places to hide.
Peter whispered.
“Why is she here?”
Elaine walked closer.
She stopped several feet away.
“Because you found the message.”
Linda felt her anger return.
“How?”
Elaine looked at the phone in her hand.
“Because Daniel sent it.”
Nobody spoke.
Peter stepped forward.
“You know how?”
Elaine nodded.
“I helped him set it up.”
Linda stared.
“You knew he planned this?”
Elaine looked at her.
“No.”
A pause.
“I knew he was afraid.”
The answer was quiet.
Human.
That made it harder.
“Where is he?” Linda asked.
Elaine looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Peter watched her carefully.
“Then why are you here?”
Elaine reached into her coat.
She pulled out a small envelope.
The same kind Daniel had used before.
Linda felt her chest tighten.
“Because this is the last thing he left with me.”
Peter looked at it.
“You said you barely knew him.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“I lied.”
The admission came without resistance.
“I lied because the truth would have destroyed people who did not deserve it.”
Linda looked at the envelope.
“And now?”
Elaine held it out.
“Now I think hiding it destroyed more.”
Linda did not take it immediately.
“What is inside?”
Elaine looked toward the diner window.
Then back at her.
“The name of the person who gave Daniel the original file.”
A silence followed.
The kind that changed everything after it ended.
Linda reached for the envelope.
Her fingers touched the paper.
Then Elaine said one more thing.
“Linda.”
She looked up.
“If you open that, there is no going back to believing you knew your husband.”
Linda stared at the envelope.
Then at the people around her.
Peter.
Martin.
Elaine.
Everyone carrying pieces of a man she loved.
She opened it.
Inside was a single page.
One sentence.
May you like
The original file was never stolen.
It was given away.
