Chapter 3: What Daniel Knew
I couldn't move.
She was still looking at me from across the courtyard, that small smile on her face, Nathan's arm within easy reach of her hand.
The divorce papers were still in mine.
Daniel touched my elbow.
"Come away from here.
Please."
I let him guide me around the side of the building, away from the crowd, away from Nathan's laughter.
We stopped near a stone bench beside a row of hedges.
I sat down because my legs had stopped working properly.
"Tell me everything," I said.
Daniel sat beside me.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a second envelope.
Smaller than the one Nathan had given me.
He held it but didn't hand it over yet.
"Her name is Dr.
Cassandra Voss," he said.
"She finished her residency at Mercy General last spring.
Nathan met her during his clinical rotation in third year."
"Two years ago."
"Yes."
I looked at the envelope in his hands.
"What's in that?"
"I want you to understand the full picture before you open it." He paused.
"Nathan didn't just have an affair.
He and Cassandra have been planning this for a long time.
The divorce filing, the timing on graduation day — that wasn't impulsive.
That was coordinated."
"Coordinated how?"
Daniel finally handed me the envelope.
"Open it."
Inside were printed photographs.
Screenshots of messages.
I recognized Nathan's number at the top of the first one.
The timestamps went back twenty-two months.
My eyes caught a line near the middle of the first page.
*She has no idea.
By the time she figures it out, it'll already be done.*
My hands stopped shaking.
Something colder replaced the shaking.
"There's more," Daniel said carefully.
"The last page."
I turned to it.
It was a document.
A property listing.
An apartment in the Riverside district, two bedrooms, purchased eight months ago.
The buyer's name was Nathan Hale.
The co-signer was Cassandra Voss.
"He bought an apartment," I said.
"While you were still paying his tuition," Daniel said.
"He used the joint account.
The one you both contributed to for emergencies."
I set the papers down on the bench beside me.
"How did you get these?" I asked.
"Cassandra has a younger sister.
She's in the nursing program here.
She found out what was happening and she came to me three weeks ago.
She didn't know what to do." He looked at the ground.
"Neither did I, honestly.
I kept thinking there had to be a better moment.
A private moment.
I'm sorry it came to this."
I picked up the photographs again.
In the last one, Nathan and Cassandra were standing in front of a building I now recognized as the Riverside apartment.
He had his arm around her.
They were both smiling.
The photo was dated four months ago.
I had been working a double shift that weekend.
I remembered it specifically because the restaurant's dishwasher had broken down and I'd stayed three hours past my scheduled end time.
I'd come home at midnight.
Nathan had been asleep.
Or I had thought he was asleep.
"Does he know you have these?" I asked.
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
I stood up.
I gathered the photographs, the screenshots, the property document, and placed them carefully back in the envelope.
"Where is he right now?" I asked.
Daniel glanced toward the courtyard.
"Still near the front steps.
His parents just arrived."
His parents.
I had met his parents at our wedding.
His mother had held my hands and told me I was the best thing that had ever happened to her son.
"Does his family know?" I asked.
Daniel hesitated just long enough.
May you like
"His mother does," he said quietly.
"She's known for about six months."
