Chapter 4
Daniel sat down without being asked.
His knees seemed unable to hold him.
I stared at Detective Alvarez.
“What did you just say?”
She kept her voice controlled.
“The folder contains surveillance photographs of you. Your home. Your vehicle. Your routine.”
I couldn’t process it.
“And pages?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of pages?”
She hesitated.
That scared me more than the answer.
“Scenarios.”
“For killing me?”
“We’re still evaluating exactly what they mean.”
“Don’t soften it.”
Her eyes met mine.
“One page references a car accident.”
Daniel covered his face.
“Another mentions medication.”
My skin went cold.
“And another discusses a fall.”
I looked at Eli.
The staircase.
The stroller.
A fall.
My stomach twisted.
“Was today supposed to be about me?”
“We don’t know.”
I turned toward Daniel.
He looked sick.
“You lived with her.”
“Claire—”
“You slept beside her every night.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You gave her access to our son.”
“I didn’t know!”
I flinched at his volume.
So did Eli.
Daniel immediately lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
Detective Alvarez stepped between us slightly.
“Mr. Parker, I think you should leave.”
Daniel nodded.
But before he reached the door, I asked one question.
“When did you meet her?”
He stopped.
“You know when.”
“No.”
He slowly turned.
“You told me you met Vanessa after we separated.”
His face changed.
The detective noticed.
“So when did you actually meet her?”
Daniel stared at me.
“Claire.”
“When?”
“Three months before.”
I laughed once.
It sounded broken.
Of course.
There was always another betrayal hiding underneath the first.
“You were sleeping with her while I was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie.”
“We kissed.”
I stared at him.
He swallowed.
“We kissed twice.”
“While I was seven months pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“And she knew about me.”
“Yes.”
“And Eli.”
“Yes.”
He whispered the final word.
The detective wrote something down.
I saw it.
Daniel noticed too.
“This has nothing to do with the case.”
Detective Alvarez looked up.
“We don’t know that yet.”
Daniel paled.
She asked, “Did Vanessa ever express resentment about the pregnancy?”
He didn’t answer.
I knew.
“Daniel.”
He looked at me.
“What did she say?”
He closed his eyes.
“She said the timing was unfair.”
I felt numb.
“What does that mean?”
“She said if you hadn’t gotten pregnant, we could have started over sooner.”
My chest tightened.
I had been growing his child while another woman complained that my baby was delaying her life.
“And you stayed with her?”
Daniel wiped his face.
“I was selfish.”
“No.”
I looked at Eli.
“You were dangerous.”
He left.
I didn’t stop him.
An hour later, the doctors cleared Eli from immediate danger but wanted to observe him overnight.
I refused to leave his side.
Rachel came to the hospital just after nine.
Her wrist was wrapped from when Vanessa shoved her.
She stood in the doorway, hesitant.
“Can I come in?”
I nodded.
The moment she saw Eli, she started crying.
“I’m so sorry.”
I stood and hugged her.
“No. You saved him.”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“You tried to tell Daniel.”
“I should have found you.”
“You were scared.”
She pulled back.
“I was.”
“Of Vanessa?”
Rachel nodded.
Then she glanced toward the hallway.
“I need to tell you something else.”
I almost laughed.
It felt like the entire day had become a chain of terrible sentences beginning exactly like that.
“What?”
She sat down.
“I didn’t start recording because of the bottle.”
I waited.
“I started recording because Vanessa asked me a question.”
“What question?”
Rachel looked ashamed.
“She asked whether your house had security cameras.”
My mouth went dry.
“When?”
“About three weeks ago.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her I didn’t know.”
“She knew I moved?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Rachel looked at me carefully.
“She had your address.”
I thought of the photographs found in Vanessa’s folder.
My bedroom window.
Someone had stood outside my house.
Watching.
“What else did she ask?”
“She asked what time you usually picked Eli up.”
I felt cold.
“She asked which entrance you used.”
“Why?”
“She said she wanted to avoid you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Rachel continued.
“Then she asked if you had allergies.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“She said she was planning a family dinner someday and wanted to know.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I didn’t know.”
She paused.
“But she knew.”
“How?”
“I heard her tell someone on the phone.”
My heart began pounding.
“What did she say?”
Rachel took a breath.
“She said, ‘She’s allergic to almonds. That part is easy.’”
My entire body went rigid.
I was severely allergic to tree nuts.
Not mildly.
Anaphylaxis.
Daniel knew.
My mother knew.
A few close friends.
I carried epinephrine everywhere.
Vanessa should not have known.
Unless Daniel told her.
Or unless she had been digging through my life much longer than anyone realized.
“Did you tell the detective?”
“Not yet.”
I pressed the call button.
Detective Alvarez returned thirty minutes later.
Rachel repeated everything.
The detective barely reacted outwardly.
But her questions became faster.
More precise.
“Exact date?”
“Approximate time?”
“Was anyone else present?”
“Which phone was Vanessa using?”
“Landline or cell?”
Then she asked me about food.
“Have you had any unexplained allergic reactions recently?”
I thought.
“No.”
Then I remembered.
A month ago.
Daniel had dropped off banana bread.
He said his mother made it.
I had taken one bite and my lips began tingling.
I spit it out.
Used medication.
It never progressed.
At the time I assumed there had been accidental cross-contamination.
“Wait.”
Detective Alvarez saw my face.
“What?”
I told her.
“Do you still have any of it?”
“No. I threw it away.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Daniel.”
Rachel looked horrified.
Detective Alvarez’s voice remained calm.
“Did Daniel say who made it?”
“His mother.”
“Can we confirm that?”
I called my mother-in-law.
At first, Linda sounded surprised to hear from me.
Then worried.
“Is Eli all right?”
“How do you know?”
“Daniel called.”
Of course.
I asked her about the banana bread.
Silence.
“What banana bread?”
The room went cold.
“About a month ago. Daniel brought me banana bread and said you baked it.”
“I haven’t baked banana bread in years.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
Detective Alvarez held out her hand for my phone.
I put the call on speaker.
“Linda,” the detective said, “this is Detective Maria Alvarez. I need you to be very certain.”
“I am.”
“Did you prepare or give Daniel any baked goods to deliver to Claire Parker in the last two months?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa?”
Another pause.
“I don’t know.”
Then Linda’s voice changed.
“Wait.”
“What?” I asked.
“She brought banana bread to dinner once.”
My hands started shaking.
“When?”
“Around five weeks ago.”
“Were there nuts in it?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Almond flour.”
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
Linda heard.
“What’s happening?”
I couldn’t answer.
Detective Alvarez took over.
When the call ended, she looked at me.
“Do you remember exactly when Daniel brought the bread?”
I checked old messages.
There it was.
Daniel: Left something from Mom at your door. She said you used to love it.
I showed the detective.
She photographed the screen.
Then I scrolled.
Something else caught my attention.
Two days before that message.
Daniel had texted:
Vanessa wants us to stop fighting. Maybe give her a chance.
And I had replied:
I am not interested in a relationship with the woman you left me for.
His response:
You’re making everything harder than it needs to be.
I stared at those words.
At the time they sounded like divorce frustration.
Now they felt darker.
“How much did Daniel know?” I asked.
Detective Alvarez didn’t answer immediately.
“We’re investigating everyone’s role.”
My stomach turned.
“You think he helped her?”
“I’m not saying that.”
“But you’re not ruling it out.”
“No.”
I sat beside Eli.
I had spent the entire day believing Daniel was guilty of stupidity.
Selfishness.
Cruelty.
Negligence.
But what if it was worse?
What if he had known about the bread?
What if he knew Vanessa watched my house?
What if his desire for full custody had become something darker?
Then Rachel spoke.
“There’s one more thing.”
Detective Alvarez looked at her.
Rachel seemed frightened to say it.
“I heard them fighting last night.”
“About what?”
“Money.”
Daniel and Vanessa.
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
Rachel rubbed her hands together.
“Vanessa told him he needed to stop being weak.”
“And Daniel?”
“He said, ‘I agreed to scare her. I never agreed to hurt anyone.’”
My entire body went numb.
The detective leaned forward.
“You are absolutely certain those were his words?”
Rachel nodded.
“And Vanessa said…”
She stopped.
“What?” I whispered.
Rachel looked at me.
“She said, ‘It’s too late to pretend you’re innocent now.’”
I stared at the wall.
The room seemed to disappear.
Daniel had agreed to something.
Maybe not murder.
Maybe not poisoning.
But something.
Something meant to scare me.
Something connected to Vanessa.
And he had never told me.
I reached for my phone.
Detective Alvarez stopped me.
“Who are you calling?”
“Daniel.”
“Don’t.”
“I need to hear him say it.”
“No.”
Her tone was firm.
“If he is involved, you do not warn him about what we know.”
The words destroyed the last part of me that still saw Daniel as my husband.
Not ex-husband.
Not enemy.
Not suspect.
Husband.
The man who had held my hand when Eli was born.
The man who cried when our son first opened his eyes.
The man who kissed my forehead and promised us both that he would protect us forever.
I looked at Eli sleeping.
“Then what happens now?”
Detective Alvarez’s phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
Her face hardened.
“We talk to your husband again.”
“Why?”
She stood.
“Because officers searching the house found something else.”
I almost didn’t want to ask.
Almost.
“What?”
“A prepaid phone.”
“Vanessa’s?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What’s on it?”
The detective looked directly at me.
“Messages between two people discussing how to make you afraid enough to give up custody.”
My heart stopped.
“And one of the numbers involved…”
May you like
She paused.
“Belongs to Daniel.”
