Chapter 10
William wanted to go to the lake house immediately.
Julia refused.
“Margaret is under investigation. The property may contain evidence. Nobody touches anything until law enforcement knows.”
William hated being told no.
For once, he accepted it.
Detectives obtained permission to search because William owned the property.
Daniel agreed to show them the hidden compartment.
I did not go.
I stayed with Ethan.
That choice mattered to me.
For days, every crisis had pulled me toward the adults.
Money.
Court.
Police.
Documents.
I finally understood that Ethan needed someone whose attention belonged completely to him.
We spent the morning building a cardboard castle.
He gave it twelve windows and no doors.
“How do people get inside?” I asked.
“They don’t.”
I looked at him.
He kept coloring.
“Why not?”
“So nobody bad can come in.”
My throat tightened.
I put down the marker.
“Do you feel like we need a house nobody can enter?”
He shrugged.
“Maybe.”
“What about good people?”
“They can stay outside.”
I moved closer.
“Would I be outside?”
He finally looked at me.
“No.”
“Grandpa?”
He thought about it.
“He can come in.”
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Lauren?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
He returned to coloring.
I did not mention Daniel.
Ethan did.
“Dad can come if he stops listening to Grandma.”
My eyes burned.
“Do you miss him?”
“A little.”
“You’re allowed to.”
“Are you mad if I do?”
“No.”
“Even after he took me?”
“Even after that.”
Ethan looked confused.
“You said what he did was bad.”
“It was.”
“But I can still love him?”
“Yes.”
That was the hardest truth I had learned.
Love did not erase harm.
Harm did not always erase love.
Both could exist.
But only one determined who got access to my child.
Around noon, William returned from the lake house.
He was pale.
Julia came with him.
I knew immediately they had found something.
“What was in the ledger?”
William sat down.
“Records.”
“What kind?”
“Payments to Raymond.”
“How much?”
“Over nine million dollars.”
I stared at him.
“Over eleven years?”
“Yes.”
Julia continued.
“There were also records of payments from Raymond back to accounts Margaret controlled.”
“Why move money in circles?”
“To disguise where other funds came from.”
“What other funds?”
William looked sick.
“Company kickbacks.”
I frowned.
Julia explained.
Raymond owned businesses that had received inflated contracts from William’s company.
Margaret helped steer work toward him.
Raymond then returned a portion of the money to her.
“They were stealing from both sides,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
William looked down at his hands.
“I signed contracts she recommended.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
I sat beside him.
“You trusted your wife.”
He laughed bitterly.
“So did you.”
That hurt because it was true.
Julia continued.
“The ledger also contained dates, initials, and references to something called D.C.”
“What is that?”
“We don’t know.”
William shook his head.
“I might.”
I waited.
He looked at me.
“Daniel Carter.”
My stomach tightened.
“Daniel?”
“Some entries begin after Daniel joined the company.”
Julia said investigators were comparing dates.
The first D.C. entries appeared five years earlier.
Daniel had become a vice president that same year.
“How much?”
William answered quietly.
“About one point eight million is connected to those initials.”
I closed my eyes.
Daniel had admitted moving money recently.
Maybe his involvement went much further back.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I did not answer.
It rang again.
Then Marcus texted.
Talk to me before responding. Police just contacted Daniel.
I called Marcus.
He sounded grim.
“They found the ledger.”
“I know.”
“They believe some entries may refer to Daniel.”
“William thinks so too.”
“Daniel denies knowing about the older payments.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t believe or disbelieve clients I don’t represent.”
Fair answer.
Then Marcus said, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Daniel’s attorney sent over financial disclosures for the divorce.”
My stomach tightened.
“He has more than six hundred thousand dollars in personal debt.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“What kind of debt?”
“Credit lines. Loans. Cash advances. Some gambling-related transactions.”
I closed my eyes.
“Gambling?”
“Yes.”
Daniel had always criticized me for spending too much at the grocery store.
He had complained about Ethan’s soccer registration.
He had once made me return a two-hundred-dollar winter coat because he said we had to be careful.
Six hundred thousand dollars.
“Does William know?”
“Not yet.”
I told him.
William stared at me.
“Daniel earns more than half a million a year.”
“He owes more than that.”
William’s face hardened.
“The stolen money.”
Julia said, “Maybe.”
My phone rang again.
This time Daniel left a voicemail.
I played it on speaker.
“Emily, I know what they found. I need you to understand those ledger entries aren’t what they look like. Mom used my accounts. I didn’t know where the money came from. Please call me before Dad assumes the worst.”
William laughed bitterly.
“He always wants someone to call before consequences arrive.”
I did not call.
That evening, Ethan asked whether we could go to our house for his stuffed fox.
I had forgotten it.
His favorite toy had been left on his bed when we fled Thanksgiving night.
I asked Marcus.
He recommended I not go alone.
William’s security director sent two people with me.
Our house felt strange.
Not dangerous.
Dead.
Daniel was not there.
I walked through the kitchen and saw two coffee mugs beside the sink.
One had lipstick on the rim.
My stomach turned.
Vanessa.
Maybe old.
Maybe recent.
It did not matter anymore.
I went upstairs.
Ethan grabbed his fox.
Then he stopped near Daniel’s office.
“Mom?”
“What?”
He pointed beneath the desk.
“There’s Grandma’s bag.”
I looked.
A small leather case was wedged behind a filing cabinet.
I pulled it out.
Inside were copies of my bank statements.
My tax returns.
Ethan’s birth certificate.
And a folder bearing my maiden name.
My hands began shaking.
I opened it.
There were private investigator reports about me going back almost five years.
They started three months before Daniel and I got married.
Margaret had been investigating me before I ever became her daughter-in-law.
Then I reached the final page.
It was a report about Ethan’s biological father.
Across the top was a name I had not seen in seven years.
Nathan Reed.
May you like
Underneath it, someone had written a sentence in Margaret’s handwriting.
William can never learn who Nathan really was.
