Chapter 7: The Truth Daniel Feared Most
Daniel looked straight into the camera.
“Peter called me two days before the accident.
He said Victor had been moving money through false invoices, and he asked me to copy the ledgers.”
Lily’s letter sat unopened beside the laptop.
I folded my hands beneath the table so Claire would not see them shaking.
Daniel continued.
“After the accident, I found Victor’s garage recording.
I should have gone to the police immediately.”
He held up a photograph of Lily leaving daycare.
“Victor sent me this.
He said Lily could be next.”
Daniel lowered the photograph.
“I stayed silent, but fear wasn’t my only reason.
Victor offered me money.
I took it.”
I stopped the video.
“No.”
Claire reached toward me, but I pulled away.
“He took money after Peter and my daughter were gone.”
“Play the rest,” Rachel said.
“I don’t want to.”
“You deserve the whole truth, not half of it.”
I pressed play.
“I put every dollar into a trust for Lily because returning it would warn Victor that I had kept the evidence.
That doesn’t make me innocent.
It makes me a coward who tried to turn dirty money into something useful.”
Daniel wiped his face.
“Then I saw Anna at the hospital.
I recognized her immediately.
I told myself I would confess the next day.
Every day, I found another excuse.”
My chair struck the wall as I stood.
“He watched me talk about Peter.
He watched me cry.”
Claire rose too.
“Yes.”
“And he said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“How am I supposed to forgive that?”
“You don’t have to forgive it today.”
“I married him!”
“And he loved you.”
“Love without truth is another kind of prison.”
Claire flinched, then nodded.
“I know.
I lived in one for nineteen years.”
Rachel paused the recording.
“Anna, Victor wants Daniel’s shame to bury Victor’s actions.
Don’t let him turn one man’s failure into another man’s escape.”
My phone rang.
Victor’s name appeared on the screen.
Rachel activated the recorder on her own phone.
“Answer it.”
I put the call on speaker.
“Where is Lily?”
“With Claire’s sister,” Victor said.
“Safe for now.”
“The order says she stays at your home.”
“The order says she remains in my care.”
“Bring her back.”
“Destroy the memory card.”
“No.”
“You heard Daniel’s confession, didn’t you?
He took my money.
He married you because he couldn’t live with what he did.”
“He also kept your records.”
“Because he wanted more money.”
“Then why are you so desperate to destroy them?”
Victor’s breathing sharpened.
“You think Lily will still love you after she hears you sent her father’s brother to prison?”
“I think she’ll know I protected her.”
“You couldn’t protect your first child.”
The room went silent.
I gripped the phone with both hands.
“Say that again.”
Rachel shook her head, but I needed Victor to keep talking.
“You were supposed to protect your family, Anna.
You failed.
Daniel knew you were desperate enough to accept a replacement.”
Claire covered her mouth.
I spoke slowly.
“You went into Peter’s garage.
We have the recording.”
“You have a dark figure on poor-quality video.”
“We have the ledgers.”
“Stolen documents.”
“We have Claire.”
A low laugh came through the speaker.
“My wife has a history of emotional instability.
No jury will trust her.”
Claire leaned toward the phone.
“They’ll trust the recordings I kept.”
Victor stopped laughing.
“What recordings?”
“The ones from our dining room.
The night you said Peter’s car would never reach the auditor’s office.”
The call ended.
Claire looked at Rachel.
“I don’t have that recording.”
“Victor doesn’t know that,” Rachel said.
A moment later, my phone lit up with an alert from Lily’s tablet.
She had shared her location with me.
The small blue dot was moving rapidly toward the state line.
Rachel called Natalie.
“Victor has violated the court order.”
May you like
I grabbed my coat.
Then Lily’s location stopped at a private airfield twenty miles outside town.
