Chapter 9
Patricia stopped pretending after the arrest.
Maybe she knew the lies had finally become too heavy to carry.
Maybe she understood that once police found Daniel’s recording, the story was no longer hers to control.
Or maybe she simply hated me enough to stop hiding it.
As officers escorted her from the lake house, she looked directly at me.
“You ruined my son.”
I stared back.
“No. You did.”
She laughed.
“You think Daniel was innocent?”
“I never said he was.”
“He chose you over his family.”
My bruised throat tightened.
“He forged my signature.”
“He hesitated.”
Her voice became bitter.
“That was his weakness.”
Officer Ramirez pushed her toward the vehicle.
Patricia twisted around.
“You want the truth, Emily?”
“I think I’ve had enough truth for one day.”
“No, you haven’t.”
She smiled.
“Ask Daniel why Rebecca got sixty thousand dollars.”
Then she was placed in the patrol car.
Rebecca again.
I thought finding out about the affair would be the final personal betrayal.
Apparently not.
We returned to the city after dark.
I was exhausted.
Dad wanted me to stay at his house.
This time, I agreed.
Not because Patricia had won.
Because my home had become evidence.
Investigators were reviewing security footage, financial documents, and electronics.
I didn’t want to sleep surrounded by rooms where Daniel had recorded me.
Dad’s house still looked like it had when I was twenty.
Same photographs.
Same wooden staircase.
Same grandfather clock Mom used to complain was always five minutes slow.
Nathan made grilled-cheese sandwiches.
Nobody was hungry.
We ate anyway.
At nine, Laura received confirmation that the foreclosure had been formally suspended pending the fraud investigation.
For the first time in two days, one piece of good news felt real.
“They can’t take the house?” I asked.
“Not while the court reviews the fraud claim.”
“Could I still lose it?”
Laura hesitated.
“The process is complicated, but the evidence is extremely strong in your favor.”
“Daniel’s confession?”
“The messages, the recordings, Sandra’s testimony, the forged documents, Patricia impersonating you, and the lender’s broker relationship with Martin.”
Dad asked, “What about the second lender?”
“They’re cooperating now.”
“Because they’re scared.”
“Probably.”
Nathan took a bite of his sandwich.
“Good.”
My phone was in police custody temporarily, so I was using an old one.
Laura’s phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
“Daniel’s attorney.”
Dad leaned back.
“This should be interesting.”
She answered.
“Bennett.”
We listened to half a conversation.
“No.”
Pause.
“No, that’s not acceptable.”
Longer pause.
“I don’t care what your client wants.”
Another pause.
Laura looked at me.
Then said, “I’ll ask her.”
She muted the call.
“Daniel wants to cooperate.”
Nathan laughed.
“Of course he does.”
“What does he want?” I asked.
“To speak to you.”
“No.”
“He says he’ll give investigators everything he knows about Patricia and Martin if you agree to hear him out.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“He doesn’t get to bargain with her.”
“I agree.”
I looked at Laura.
“Would his information help?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“We don’t know.”
I hated that.
I hated that even now Daniel could create a situation where part of me felt responsible for whether the truth emerged.
“What happens if I refuse?”
“Prosecutors can negotiate without you.”
“Then let them.”
Laura nodded and unmuted the call.
“My client declines.”
She hung up.
Nathan smiled faintly.
“Good.”
But I didn’t feel good.
I felt empty.
The next morning, Rebecca Shaw contacted Laura.
Not me.
That was smart.
She had seen the news.
Daniel’s arrest had become public.
So had Patricia’s.
Local reporters knew there was a fraud investigation involving multiple private lenders.
They did not yet know everything.
Rebecca wanted immunity.
“She’s not entitled to immunity just because she asks,” Laura explained.
“What does she know?”
“A lot, apparently.”
“Did she know Daniel was married?”
“Yes.”
That hurt more than I expected.
“Did she know about the house?”
“She says yes.”
My hands curled.
“And she still stayed with him?”
“Apparently.”
“What does sixty thousand dollars have to do with her?”
“That’s what she wants to explain.”
I agreed to hear her through a video call with Laura present.
Rebecca appeared on screen looking nothing like the confident woman in the photographs.
No makeup.
Hair tied back.
Eyes swollen.
“Emily.”
“Don’t apologize yet.”
She closed her mouth.
“Tell me why Daniel gave you sixty thousand dollars.”
Rebecca looked down.
“He didn’t.”
“Bank records say he did.”
“Patricia did.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“She paid me to stay with Daniel.”
The words were so ridiculous I almost asked her to repeat them.
“What?”
Rebecca wiped her face.
“I met Daniel at a marketing conference.”
“You started an affair.”
“Yes.”
“And his mother paid you?”
“Later.”
“Why?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Patricia wanted him emotionally separated from you.”
My stomach turned.
“She recruited his mistress?”
“No. Not originally. Daniel and I… that happened on our own.”
At least she didn’t try to avoid responsibility.
“When Patricia found out, I thought she would hate me.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“She invited me to lunch.”
Of course she did.
“She said you controlled Daniel. She said he was miserable.”
“And you believed her?”
“I wanted to.”
That answer was painfully human.
Selfish.
Ugly.
But honest.
“What was the money for?”
“She wanted me to keep records.”
“What kind?”
“Messages from Daniel. Things he said about the finances. About you. About the divorce.”
Laura leaned forward.
“Why?”
“She said if Daniel got scared and tried to back out, she needed leverage.”
“Against her own son?” I asked.
Rebecca nodded.
I thought about Daniel’s video.
I told Mom we need to stop.
Patricia had seen his hesitation coming.
“What leverage?”
Rebecca breathed in.
“Daniel knew the loans were fraudulent.”
“We know.”
“He also knew Martin was falsifying business records.”
Laura’s eyes sharpened.
“What records?”
“Ridgeway Commons wasn’t a failed development deal.”
“What was it?”
“A shell.”
Dad, standing behind me, muttered something under his breath.
Rebecca continued.
“Investors put money into redevelopment projects that barely existed. New money covered old obligations.”
“A Ponzi scheme?” Laura asked.
“Something like that.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know. Millions.”
“Daniel was involved?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He created companies that moved money.”
Mercer Holdings.
The other entities.
It finally made sense.
My house wasn’t the entire crime.
It was fuel.
They needed liquidity to keep something much larger alive.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Daniel wanted out.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“Before or after he slept with you?”
She flinched.
“After.”
“Convenient.”
“I know.”
I folded my arms.
“What did Patricia do when he wanted out?”
“She threatened him.”
“With what?”
“Prison.”
I laughed softly.
“He committed crimes. That isn’t much of a threat.”
“She had documents that made him look like the architect of everything.”
“Was he?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Do you expect me to feel sorry for him?”
“No.”
Good.
Because I didn’t.
Rebecca continued.
“Daniel told me he was going to confess to you.”
“When?”
“The night before he attacked you.”
My breathing stopped for a second.
“He planned to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Patricia came over.”
Of course.
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“She told him if you learned the truth, you would go to your father. Your father would bring lawyers. Investigators would find everything.”
“She was right.”
“Yes.”
“She wanted me to sign over the house.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Because they needed another loan.”
I stared.
“Another?”
“They were trying to raise one million dollars.”
My stomach turned.
“Against the house?”
“Against your house and your projected inheritance.”
Dad’s chair scraped the floor.
“My what?”
Rebecca looked frightened.
“Patricia believed Emily’s father had established a trust.”
Dad’s expression became very still.
He had.
A family trust.
Daniel knew only vaguely about it.
Apparently vaguely had been enough.
“What were they planning?” Laura asked.
Rebecca swallowed.
“Once Daniel filed for divorce, Patricia wanted him to claim an equitable interest in Emily’s house and challenge any transfers from the family trust.”
“That would fail,” Laura said.
“Maybe. But Martin said litigation could freeze assets long enough to negotiate.”
I felt physically ill.
They didn’t need to win.
They needed to create chaos.
Rebecca rubbed her palms together.
“I have messages.”
“With Patricia?”
“Yes.”
“With Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“With Martin?”
“A few.”
“Give them to police.”
“I will.”
“Then why call me?”
Rebecca looked straight into the camera.
“Because there’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“What?”
“The fire.”
Dad leaned forward.
“What about it?”
“Daniel wasn’t the person who discovered Patricia’s plan.”
I frowned.
“He said she planned to burn the house.”
“She did.”
“How do you know?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Because Patricia asked me to help.”
The room went silent.
“What did she ask you to do?”
“She wanted me to establish an alibi for Daniel.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“This coming Friday.”
The original foreclosure date.
“What was supposed to happen?”
“Daniel would take you to dinner.”
My skin prickled.
Rebecca started crying.
“He was supposed to put something in your drink.”
Dad stood.
“What?”
“Not enough to kill you.”
My stomach clenched.
“Just enough so I wouldn’t wake up?”
Rebecca couldn’t look at me.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Daniel was supposed to leave after you went to sleep.”
“Where?”
“With you?”
She nodded.
“There would be cameras showing him at my apartment.”
“And Patricia?”
“She planned to enter the house later.”
“With gasoline?”
Rebecca started sobbing.
“I didn’t know how serious she was until Daniel told me he wasn’t going through with it.”
I couldn’t feel my hands.
“When did he tell you?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Before he came to my house.
Before he violated the no-contact order.
“What exactly did he say?”
Rebecca wiped her face.
“He said, ‘I already hurt her once. I’m not letting my mother kill her.’”
I closed my eyes.
The irony was unbearable.
Daniel had apparently drawn his moral line after choking me.
Too late to be innocent.
Just early enough not to become something worse.
Laura asked, “Why didn’t you call police?”
Rebecca’s silence condemned her.
“I was scared.”
“So you did nothing?” I asked.
“I was trying to figure out what to do.”
“No.”
My voice remained calm.
“You were waiting to see who won.”
Rebecca looked devastated.
I didn’t care.
“You helped them.”
“I know.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“Yes.”
“You took Patricia’s money.”
“Yes.”
“You knew they were stealing from me.”
Tears ran down her face.
“Yes.”
“And you knew someone planned to drug me and burn my house while I was inside.”
Rebecca whispered, “Yes.”
I leaned toward the screen.
“Then you don’t get forgiveness because you became scared after the police arrived.”
She covered her mouth.
I ended the call.
Nobody spoke.
Dad put his hand on my shoulder.
I stared at the blank screen.
Then Laura’s phone rang again.
This time she answered, listened, and immediately looked at Dad.
“What?”
She ended the call.
“Martin Vale was arrested.”
Nathan exhaled.
“Finally.”
Laura didn’t relax.
“He tried to leave the country.”
“Where?”
“Private airport.”
Dad nodded once.
“Good.”
“But he had something with him.”
“What?”
“Two passports.”
“Fake?”
“One was.”
“And the other?”
Laura looked at me.
“It belonged to Daniel.”
I frowned.
“Why would Martin have Daniel’s passport?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Then another call came.
Laura listened.
Her face slowly changed.
“No,” she said.
Pause.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Are you sure?”
She hung up.
“What happened?” I asked.
Laura stared at me.
“Daniel never returned to the detention center after his attorney arranged an interview with prosecutors.”
I stood.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s missing.”
Dad’s expression hardened.
Nathan pulled out his phone.
And somewhere deep inside me, despite everything Daniel had done, fear rose.
Not fear of him.
Fear for him.
Because Patricia was locked up.
Martin was arrested.
Rebecca had started talking.
And Daniel was the one person alive who knew exactly how all their secrets connected.
If he disappeared now, there were only two possibilities.
May you like
He had run.
Or someone had made sure he never got the chance.
