Chương 4
By six that evening, the report had become less convincing and more disturbing.
Ridgeway Genomics was a real testing company, but the document Margaret had given Emily did not match the sample reports on its website. The phone representative would not discuss whether a person named Daniel Mercer had ever been a client, citing privacy rules, which Daniel accepted after arguing for thirty seconds and then apologizing.
He emailed a copy through the company’s fraud-reporting address.
Emily watched him do it.
“Don’t use your Mercer email,” she said.
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because your mother’s company administers it.”
He stared at the address bar.
Then slowly deleted his work account.
“Right.”
He used his personal email instead.
That bothered both of them more than either said.
Daniel called the family attorney next.
Emily stopped him.
“No.”
His thumb hovered above the contact.
“What?”
“Not Simon.”
“Simon’s handled family issues for twenty years.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“He’s my lawyer too.”
“He did your parents’ estate planning.”
“So?”
“So I don’t know whose problem he thinks I am.”
Daniel lowered the phone.
Emily had never spoken about Simon Avery before.
She had met him at Christmas parties. He was sixty, silver-haired, friendly, and always asked about school funding as if he had personally discovered public education.
Daniel looked toward the windows.
“What do you want to do?”
“Find someone who doesn’t work for your family.”
He nodded.
It was small.
The nod.
But Emily noticed it.
By eight, Lucy was asleep.
The pastries remained untouched.
Daniel had reheated soup. Emily had eaten six spoonfuls.
They sat at opposite ends of the island with three names of attorneys Daniel found through referrals from people outside Mercer Development.
None could speak with them until morning.
“So we wait,” Daniel said.
Emily picked at a loose thread on her sleeve.
“We preserve things.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“The report. Your recording. Her texts.”
Daniel nodded and began creating copies.
Emily went upstairs.
She returned carrying her laptop and an old canvas tote from the school where she taught.
“What’s that?”
“Everything I didn’t tell you.”
Daniel stared at the bag.
Emily dumped its contents onto the island.
Not everything.
Just enough.
Two handwritten notes Margaret had included with baby gifts.
A printout of an article about paternity fraud.
A Christmas card with one sentence underlined in blue ink: Family is built on truth.
A sealed envelope containing five thousand dollars in cashier’s checks.
Daniel looked at it.
“What is that?”
“She gave it to me two weeks ago.”
His face drained of color.
“Why?”
“She said maternity leave is expensive.”
Daniel picked up the envelope.
Emily watched his fingers.
“Did she say anything else?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She said women need options.”
Daniel looked up.
“And you didn’t cash it.”
“No.”
“Why did you keep it?”
Emily considered lying.
Instead she said, “Because for about an hour I thought about taking it.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Not to leave you.”
“I didn’t think that.”
“I thought about putting it in an account you didn’t know about.”
He said nothing.
“That’s how scared she made me,” Emily continued. “Not that you’d hurt me. That if anything happened between us, everything around me belonged to your family.”
Daniel looked down at the checks.
“My salary is mine.”
“I know.”
“The house is ours.”
“I know.”
“Our savings—”
“I know.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Emily folded her arms.
“I’m saying knowing something legally and feeling it in your life are different things.”
Daniel pushed the checks away.
“They don’t own me.”
Emily looked at him.
He stopped.
The words hung there.
His mother chaired his company.
His uncle sat on the compensation committee.
His cousin managed one of the investment divisions.
The health insurance covering Emily and Lucy came through the company.
Even the accountant who filed their taxes had been recommended by Margaret.
Daniel leaned back.
“Okay.”
Emily’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I heard it.”
“You don’t have to agree.”
“I think I do.”
He rubbed his face.
“I just don’t like it.”
“Neither do I.”
They sat without speaking.
The refrigerator compressor came on.
Somewhere upstairs Lucy made one brief sleep-cry and settled again.
Daniel looked at the pastries.
“Why did I buy three?”
Emily looked too.
“You always buy three.”
“There are two of us.”
“You panic around pastry selection.”
“I don’t panic.”
“You absolutely panic.”
He almost smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
“I came home because the Larkin meeting got pushed.”
Emily nodded.
“I stopped at Barlow’s because I knew you didn’t eat breakfast.”
“You don’t know that.”
“There was oatmeal in the sink.”
“That was yesterday’s.”
Daniel looked offended.
Emily laughed before she could stop herself.
The laugh collapsed into a sob so quickly she covered her mouth.
Daniel did not come around the island.
He stayed where he was.
That helped.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shook her head.
“I don’t know what part you’re apologizing for.”
“Neither do I.”
“Good.”
He nodded.
“Then I’ll wait until I do.”
The next morning, Ridgeway Genomics replied.
The email was short.
The document was not an authentic Ridgeway report.
The case-number format was invalid.
The company was investigating misuse of its name and requested that Daniel preserve the original document and envelope.
Daniel read the message twice.
Emily read it three times.
Neither felt relief.
Relief would have required learning something they did not already believe.
What they had instead was confirmation that someone had constructed a fake medical-looking document and placed their family inside it.
Daniel forwarded the email to the attorney they had chosen, a woman named Priya Shah whose firm specialized in employment disputes and business conflicts.
Her first instruction was simple.
Do not confront Margaret again.
Her second was more difficult.
Do not delete anything.
Her third irritated Daniel immediately.
Do not assume the recording proves what you think it proves.
May you like
“What else does it prove?” he asked during the video call.
Priya’s image remained calm on the laptop.
