Chapter 7
I called Ashley immediately.
She answered on the second ring.
“Emily?”
“Did you know Daniel bought tickets to Belize?”
Silence.
“What?”
“For you and him.”
“No.”
“Yesterday.”
Her breathing changed.
“He told me we might take a trip after the baby was born.”
“These tickets are for tonight.”
“What?”
I looked at David.
He nodded for me to continue.
“Do not go anywhere with him.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Has he contacted you since the courthouse?”
“Twenty-three times.”
“Have you answered?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She hesitated.
“Emily… why tonight?”
That was the question.
Why buy tickets for a pregnant woman without telling her?
Maybe Daniel planned to persuade her.
Maybe pressure her.
Maybe use the baby.
Or maybe the ticket existed simply to create evidence that he intended to flee with his new family.
Either way, I didn’t like it.
“Stay with your sister. Police may contact you again.”
“Okay.”
Then she whispered, “He knows where I am.”
“I know.”
Her fear was now mine too.
Not affection.
Responsibility.
She had become a witness in something far more serious than an affair.
Agent Chen asked that Ashley communicate directly with investigators.
Within an hour, federal agents were interviewing her.
Mark Dalton was located at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
He had booked a flight to Panama City with a connection beyond it.
He was detained for questioning before boarding.
Daniel disappeared.
His phone went off.
His credit cards stopped being used.
Nobody knew where he went.
Margaret claimed she didn’t know.
I didn’t believe her.
Then her attorney called David.
Margaret wanted immunity.
I laughed when he told me.
“Already?”
“She’s frightened.”
“She should be.”
“She claims Mark and Daniel deceived her regarding the scope of the documents.”
“She falsely notarized my signature.”
“She admits that.”
I stared at him.
“She admits it?”
“Yes.”
“What does she say she thought she was doing?”
“Helping Daniel secure a fair share of marital property.”
I almost choked.
“She thought forging my signature was fair?”
“Apparently.”
“What about the corporate delegation?”
“She says Daniel told her you had verbally approved it but were unavailable to appear.”
“She notarized a signature I never made.”
“Yes.”
“Multiple times.”
“Yes.”
“Did she know Mark?”
David hesitated.
“She admits knowing him.”
Of course.
“How long?”
“Decades.”
I stood.
“Tell her I’ll listen if investigators think it’s useful. I’m not promising anything.”
“That’s the right approach.”
I returned to my office.
My actual office at Harrison Meridian.
For years, I had intentionally kept it modest.
Same floor as other executives.
No giant portrait of my father.
No throne behind a desk.
He had taught me that power didn’t need oversized furniture.
Now, sitting there, I could feel his presence more strongly than I had in years.
I opened the drawer where I kept his old brass letter opener.
My father had been complicated.
Tough.
Sometimes secretive.
Protective to a fault.
But he had built things.
Daniel had only tried to take them.
Robert knocked.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
He closed the door.
“I found something.”
I was beginning to hate that sentence.
“What?”
“Old personnel records for Margaret.”
He set down a file.
Margaret’s name then had been Margaret Lane.
Twenty-eight years ago, she worked as a junior accounting supervisor.
She had been terminated after $82,000 disappeared through manipulated vendor refunds.
“Was she guilty?”
“We believed so.”
“Believed?”
“Your father discovered Mark had interacted with some of the same vendors later.”
I looked up.
“Wait.”
“Mark was a college intern at the company around that time.”
I stared.
“He knew Margaret back then.”
“Yes.”
“Could he have stolen the money?”
“Possibly.”
“Could they have done it together?”
“Possibly.”
“So Dad fired her, Mark stayed, and twelve years later Dad caught Mark stealing separately.”
“That’s one interpretation.”
“What did Margaret mean when she said my father destroyed her life?”
Robert opened another document.
“She was a single mother.”
My stomach tightened.
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“How old was he?”
“Five.”
For the first time, I saw a different picture.
Margaret losing her job.
Struggling with a young child.
Blaming my father.
Teaching Daniel that Harrison Meridian had destroyed them.
Then years later, Daniel worked for Mark.
The man tied to Margaret’s past.
A shared grievance.
A plan.
Find a way in.
“Did my father know she had a child?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know it was Daniel?”
“No idea.”
“Did he ever regret firing her?”
Robert sighed.
“Your father regretted almost every decision that hurt someone, even when he believed it was necessary.”
I closed the file.
“This still doesn’t excuse anything.”
“No.”
“But I want the truth.”
“So do I.”
At two in the afternoon, Margaret agreed to an interview with investigators.
David and I were allowed to observe part of it because some information concerned my property, though the criminal investigation remained controlled by law enforcement.
Margaret entered without pearls this time.
She looked ten years older.
Her attorney sat beside her.
Agent Chen asked simple questions first.
Name.
Employment history.
Relationship to Daniel.
Then Mark.
Margaret tried to minimize it.
“We knew each other years ago.”
“How?”
“Work.”
“At Harrison Meridian?”
“Yes.”
“Did you reconnect recently?”
“A few years ago.”
“How many?”
“Eleven.”
My chest tightened.
Around the time Daniel and I married.
Agent Chen placed the photograph on the table.
The one showing Mark, Margaret, and Daniel two months before Daniel met me.
“Where was this taken?”
Margaret looked at it.
“A restaurant.”
“Why were you meeting?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Do you recognize the handwriting on the back?”
Margaret said nothing.
Agent Chen continued.
“We have a handwriting specialist comparing it to samples.”
Margaret looked at her attorney.
He whispered something.
Then she answered.
“It’s Mark’s.”
My pulse jumped.
Find a way in.
Mark wrote it.
“Find a way into what?” Agent Chen asked.
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“Later?”
She looked through the glass.
Toward me.
Then away.
“Emily’s life.”
The words hit me physically.
Agent Chen remained calm.
“For what purpose?”
Margaret whispered, “Mark wanted access to the family.”
“Why?”
“Revenge.”
“Against Emily?”
“Her father.”
“But he was alive when Daniel met Emily.”
“Yes.”
I stopped breathing.
Dad died four years after Daniel and I married.
“Was there a plan involving him?”
Margaret’s lawyer intervened.
“My client is not suggesting any harm toward Mr. Harrison.”
Agent Chen looked at her.
“I asked your client.”
Margaret shook her head quickly.
“No. Never physical harm.”
“Then what?”
“Mark wanted information. Business information. He believed Richard Harrison had destroyed both our lives.”
My father.
Richard.
I hadn’t heard anyone outside family use his first name with that much bitterness in years.
“What was Daniel’s role?”
“He was supposed to meet Emily.”
Supposed to.
The word broke something inside me.
Agent Chen asked, “Did Daniel know this was intentional?”
“Yes.”
My vision blurred.
There it was.
No more doubt.
My marriage had begun as an assignment.
“What happened after he met her?”
Margaret cried.
“He fell in love with her.”
I almost laughed from the other room.
Convenient.
Agent Chen must have felt the same.
“How do you know?”
“Because he wanted out.”
“When?”
“Before the wedding.”
My head snapped up.
“He told Mark he wouldn’t keep helping.”
“What did Mark do?”
“Threatened to tell Emily the truth.”
I went still.
Daniel had known before our wedding that he could confess.
He chose silence.
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because he was afraid she’d leave.”
My heart hurt despite everything.
Maybe some of it had been real.
Maybe that made it worse.
Agent Chen continued.
“What information did Daniel provide before withdrawing?”
“Nothing major. Schedules. Names. Things Emily talked about.”
“Did that continue after marriage?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
I closed my eyes.
So even if Daniel loved me, betrayal remained woven through it.
“Did Mark contact Daniel again recently?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Why?”
“Daniel was angry.”
“At Emily?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Margaret looked toward me again.
“They had stopped trying for a baby. He thought she had chosen the company over having a family.”
Anger burned through my grief.
We had stopped trying because my doctor said another pregnancy could be dangerous.
Daniel knew that.
Apparently he had rewritten even that.
“What did Mark offer?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
Margaret whispered, “Enough for Daniel to start over.”
“And your role?”
“I wanted the house.”
Agent Chen looked at her.
“Why?”
Margaret’s mouth hardened.
“Because Richard Harrison bought that house.”
“No,” I whispered from behind the glass.
I bought it.
With money I earned after my father died.
But to Margaret, everything connected to me belonged to Dad.
Therefore everything was part of the debt she believed our family owed.
Agent Chen asked, “Did you knowingly notarize Emily’s signature when she was not present?”
“Yes.”
“Did Daniel sign her name?”
Margaret looked down.
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
“Did you witness him forge it?”
“Yes.”
David touched my shoulder.
Stay calm.
Agent Chen slid another page forward.
“Who signed the medical declaration?”
Margaret froze.
“I don’t know.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Mark.”
“Did you know it was false?”
“I suspected.”
“Yet you notarized related documents?”
“Yes.”
Then Agent Chen asked the question that made Margaret break.
“Where is Daniel?”
Margaret began crying.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you speak to him after court?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Mark betrayed him.”
“How?”
“He said the money was gone.”
“What money?”
“Mark promised him access to an account.”
“What account?”
“I don’t know.”
Agent Chen leaned forward.
“What else did Daniel say?”
Margaret covered her face.
“He said he needed to fix everything before Emily found out the worst part.”
My blood turned cold.
Agent Chen’s voice sharpened.
“What worst part?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Mrs. Bennett.”
“I swear!”
She sobbed.
“He kept saying the company documents weren’t the worst thing.”
Behind the glass, David and I looked at each other.
May you like
Then Margaret lowered her hands and whispered one final sentence.
“He said if Emily learned what happened the night her father died, she would never forgive him.”
