Chapter 7: The Best Man Who Didn't Know
We drove home on Sunday.
Daniel called Marcus on Monday morning.
I was there when it happened.
We were in Marcus's kitchen — Marcus, Nadia, Frank, and me — going through the final list of things Grace needed, when Marcus's phone lit up on the counter and Daniel's name appeared on the screen.
Nobody moved for a moment.
Then Nadia said, "Answer it.
Normal.
Don't say anything about any of this."
Marcus looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
"Grace said not yet," she said.
"Answer it."
He picked up the phone.
"Hey, Dan."
I could hear Daniel's voice from where I stood — easy, warm, the same voice that had sat at my table a hundred times.
*Just checking in, mate.
Heard you lot had a good week at the coast.*
"Yeah," Marcus said.
"Really good."
*Nadia doing well?
She seemed a bit stressed last time I saw her.*
Marcus's jaw tightened.
He looked at Nadia.
She gave him a steady nod.
"She's great," he said.
"Really great, actually."
*Good, good.
Listen, I wanted to talk about the stag do — I've had some ideas.
You free Thursday?*
"I'll have to check," Marcus said.
"I'll text you."
*Brilliant.
Tell Nadia I said hello.*
"Will do."
He hung up.
He put the phone face-down on the counter very carefully, the way you put something down when you're afraid of what you'll do if you hold it any longer.
"He said to tell you hello," he said to Nadia.
She looked at the phone.
"I know."
Grace called at two that afternoon.
The non-molestation order had been granted.
It would be served to Daniel Farrow by the end of the day.
His name had been formally removed from the wedding guest list, and a letter had been sent to his firm's senior partners — not as a legal action, but as a notification, which Grace explained was standard procedure in cases involving coercion and professional leverage.
"He'll know by five o'clock," Grace said.
"When he does, he may try to contact Marcus or Nadia directly.
He must not be engaged with.
If he makes contact, you document it and send it to me immediately."
"What will he do?" I asked.
I had Grace on speaker.
We were all listening.
"In my experience," Grace said, "men like Daniel Farrow do one of two things when they realize the game is over.
They go quiet, or they escalate."
"Which is more common?" Frank asked.
"Escalation," Grace said.
"At first."
We didn't have to wait long to find out which kind Daniel was.
At six-seventeen that evening, Marcus's phone lit up again.
Not a call this time.
A message.
*I don't know what she's told you, but you need to hear my side of this before you do something you can't take back.
She's not who you think she is, Marcus.
I'm trying to protect you.
Call me.*
Marcus read it out loud.
His voice was flat.
Nadia didn't flinch.
"Screenshot it," she said.
"Send it to Grace."
He did.
Three minutes later, another message arrived.
*I mean it.
She has a history of this.
Making accusations.
I can prove it.
Don't throw away eleven years over her lies.*
Frank made a sound low in his throat.
"Screenshot," Nadia said again.
Calm.
Steady.
Like someone who had been waiting a long time to be believed, and had finally learned that belief was already in the room.
Marcus sent it to Grace.
His phone went quiet after that.
But at nine o'clock that night, my own phone rang.
The number was one I recognized.
May you like
Daniel.
Calling me.
