Chapter 5
I stared at Rachel.
“What did Jason do?”
She shook her head.
“I shouldn't have said anything.”
I laughed.
“Now you’re worried about protecting someone’s secrets?”
“He has children.”
“So?”
“If this comes out, his family is destroyed.”
I pointed toward myself.
“Look around, Rachel.”
She stopped.
“Our family is already destroyed.”
Her face crumpled.
I hated seeing her cry.
That was the strangest part.
After everything, some old reflex in me still wanted to comfort her.
Eight years doesn’t disappear in one night.
Love doesn’t always die when trust dies.
Sometimes love is the thing that makes betrayal hurt worse.
“What did Jason do?”
Rachel stared at the table.
“He took money from his company.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“How much?”
“Almost two hundred thousand.”
I stepped back.
“Two hundred thousand dollars?”
“He was going to put it back.”
I actually laughed.
“Apparently that sentence runs in your family.”
“Don’t.”
“Your brother embezzled money?”
“He borrowed it.”
“Without permission?”
“Yes.”
“That’s stealing.”
“He had investors pushing him.”
“Why did he need fifty thousand dollars from you?”
“He needed to cover part of the missing amount before an audit.”
“And you thought stealing from me was the solution?”
“I thought he would repay me within weeks.”
“When was this?”
“Eleven months ago.”
Exactly when the personal loan appeared.
“Did he repay anything?”
Rachel said nothing.
I nodded.
“Of course not.”
“He tried.”
“How?”
“He sent five thousand.”
“Where is it?”
“I used it toward a credit card.”
I rubbed both hands over my face.
It felt endless.
Every answer revealed another lie.
Every lie opened another door.
“Does his wife know?”
“No.”
“Does your mother?”
“No.”
“So everybody in your family lies to everybody.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?”
I reached for my keys again.
Rachel stood.
“Where are you going now?”
“To your brother’s house.”
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel, it’s one in the morning.”
“I don’t care.”
“He has kids sleeping.”
“So did my mother while she worked overnight shifts to keep food in the fridge.”
“This has nothing to do with her!”
“It has everything to do with her.”
Rachel grabbed my arm.
I pulled away.
“Do not touch me.”
She recoiled.
“Please. Jason will panic.”
“Good.”
“He’s under enough pressure.”
“I am fifty-two thousand dollars in debt because you protected him.”
“I’m in debt too.”
“Debt you created.”
Her jaw tightened.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Your money. Your debt. Your mother. Your house.”
I stared at her.
“You really want to argue grammar right now?”
“I’m saying you always treated me like I was living in your life instead of building ours.”
“Rachel, stop.”
“No.”
She stood straighter.
“You picked this house.”
“We picked it together.”
“You wanted this neighborhood.”
“You liked it.”
“Your job decided where we lived.”
“My job pays most of our bills.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Exactly.”
I stared at her.
She looked tired.
Broken.
Furious.
Maybe she had carried resentment for years.
Maybe I had missed it.
Maybe she had never trusted me enough to say it.
But there was still a line between being unhappy and destroying another person’s financial life.
“You could have left me,” I said.
She looked startled.
“What?”
“If being married to me was that awful, you could have left.”
Her mouth opened.
“You could have asked for counseling.”
Silence.
“You could have screamed.”
She looked away.
“You could have filed for divorce.”
Her eyes filled again.
“But you didn’t get to punish me in secret.”
“I wasn’t punishing you.”
“What would you call it?”
“I was helping my brother.”
“And sleeping with Marcus.”
She flinched.
“And stealing my mother’s rent.”
“Stop saying it like that.”
“How else should I say it?”
Her phone rang again.
Not Marcus.
JASON.
We both looked at the screen.
Rachel didn’t move.
“Did you text him?”
“No.”
The phone rang again.
I picked it up.
“Daniel.”
I answered.
Jason’s voice came through immediately.
“Rachel, Mom just called me. What the hell is going on?”
I frowned.
“How does your mom know anything?”
Silence.
Then Jason said, “Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, crap.”
“What did Carol call you about?”
He hesitated.
“Rachel called her.”
I looked at Rachel.
She shook her head.
“No, I didn’t.”
Jason said, “She said Rachel left her a voicemail crying.”
Rachel grabbed her phone from me.
“I didn’t call Mom.”
She checked the screen.
Then froze.
“What?”
Rachel stared at her recent calls.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“She called me.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
“When?”
Rachel showed me the screen.
12:24 a.m.
A twenty-seven-minute call.
Rachel’s face went pale.
“I must have answered by accident.”
I thought back.
The phone had been on the bed earlier.
Rachel had been crying.
We had been yelling.
Maybe her mother had listened to everything.
Jason spoke through the phone.
“Rachel, what did Mom hear?”
She whispered, “I don’t know.”
He cursed.
Then another call came in.
CAROL.
Rachel stared at it.
I took the phone.
“Answer it,” Jason said.
I merged the calls.
“Carol?”
Her voice was eerily calm.
“Daniel.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Rachel sat down.
Carol continued.
“I heard enough.”
Jason immediately said, “Mom, listen—”
“No, Jason.”
Silence.
“I heard your sister say she gave you money because you were in trouble.”
“Mom—”
“And I heard Daniel mention stealing from his mother.”
Rachel covered her face.
Carol’s voice shook.
“What did you two do?”
Nobody answered.
Then Carol said something I didn’t expect.
“Daniel, come to my house.”
Rachel looked up.
“Mom.”
“Not you.”
Rachel’s face fell.
“Mom, please.”
“I said Daniel.”
Jason interrupted.
“This is between us.”
Carol snapped.
“You stole two hundred thousand dollars and somehow you think anything is between you and anybody?”
Jason went silent.
Carol breathed heavily.
“I want Daniel here. Now.”
I grabbed my coat.
Rachel stood.
“I’m coming.”
Carol’s voice turned cold.
“No.”
“Mom.”
“No, Rachel.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand that your husband discovered fifty thousand dollars missing while your brother is hiding stolen money from his company.”
Rachel began crying.
“And I understand something else.”
Her tone changed.
Something darker.
“I should have told Daniel years ago.”
I stopped at the front door.
“Told me what?”
Carol was silent for so long that I thought the call had dropped.
Then she said, “Come here.”
The line disconnected.
Jason immediately said, “Daniel, don’t.”
I looked at the phone.
“Why?”
“Because my mother is angry.”
“She has a right to be.”
“You have no idea what she’s going to tell you.”
“Do you?”
Silence.
“Jason?”
He exhaled.
“Yes.”
Rachel suddenly whispered, “What is she talking about?”
Jason cursed under his breath.
“Nothing.”
Rachel stood.
“Jason.”
“Stay home.”
“Tell me.”
He hung up.
Rachel stared at me.
“You’re not going without me.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Daniel.”
“Your mother specifically asked me to come alone.”
“I don't care.”
“I do.”
She blocked the door.
“What if she lies?”
I stared at her.
The irony was unbearable.
Rachel saw it in my face.
She stepped aside.
I left.
Carol lived twenty minutes away in a brick ranch house she had owned since Rachel was in college.
When I pulled into the driveway, every light downstairs was on.
Carol opened the front door before I knocked.
She looked twenty years older than she had at Christmas.
“Come in.”
I entered.
There were papers covering her kitchen table.
Bank documents.
Photographs.
An old manila envelope.
And a small velvet box.
I frowned.
“What is all this?”
Carol sat down.
“I kept it because I always knew this day might come.”
My stomach tightened.
“What day?”
“The day Rachel did to you what she did before.”
I stared at her.
“What do you mean before?”
Carol looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“Daniel, you were not the first man she married.”
The room went silent.
I actually smiled because I thought she had misspoken.
“What?”
“Rachel was married when she was twenty-three.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She would have told me.”
Carol’s face twisted with pain.
“Would she?”
That shut me up.
“His name was Eric Lawson.”
She pushed a photograph across the table.
Rachel.
Younger.
Maybe twenty-three or twenty-four.
Standing next to a man I had never seen.
She wore a white dress.
Not a wedding gown.
But she was holding flowers.
He had his arm around her waist.
I turned the photograph over.
Rachel & Eric.
Courthouse.
May 14.
My hands began shaking.
“What happened?”
“They were married eighteen months.”
“Why did it end?”
Carol’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because Eric accused her of stealing money from him.”
I looked at the documents.
Credit cards.
A loan.
Bank withdrawals.
It felt like staring at my own life.
“How much?”
“Thirty thousand, maybe more.”
“And you knew?”
Carol nodded.
“Did she do it?”
Carol closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
I stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“You knew.”
“I did.”
“You watched me marry her.”
“I thought she changed.”
“You watched me marry her.”
“I begged her to tell you.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No.”
“And you kept quiet.”
Carol began crying.
“I was ashamed.”
“That seems to be the family tradition.”
She flinched.
I didn’t care.
Not then.
“You let me walk into the same thing.”
“I thought Eric was different.”
“How?”
“He drank. He was cruel. Their marriage was terrible.”
“So stealing was acceptable?”
“No.”
“Did Rachel have an affair on him too?”
Carol looked down.
My stomach sank.
“She did.”
“Same pattern.”
“Yes.”
I walked around the kitchen.
I couldn't breathe inside my coat anymore.
I pulled it off and threw it over a chair.
“Why are you telling me now?”
“Because I heard her tonight.”
“That’s not enough.”
“What?”
“You had eight years.”
Carol wiped her face.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
I laughed without humor.
“There is always something else.”
She opened the velvet box.
Inside was a ring.
A man’s wedding band.
I frowned.
“What is that?”
“Eric’s.”
“Why do you have it?”
“He left it here.”
“When?”
“The night he disappeared.”
I looked at her.
“Disappeared?”
Carol nodded.
“Three days after he told Rachel he was filing charges.”
My skin went cold.
May you like
“What happened to him?”
“Nobody knows.”
