Chapter 2: The Name on the Screen
Victoria didn't dial.
She stood there, phone trembling in her hand, eyes moving between Daniel and me like she was calculating something.
Looking for a way out that didn't exist.
Then she found her voice again.
"You don't understand," she said.
Softer now.
Careful.
"Clara, I had no idea who you were.
If Daniel had simply told me you were coming—"
"I've been coming here every Sunday for three years," I said.
"To tend that garden.
To check on this house.
While you were away on your trips."
She blinked.
"Three years?" she whispered.
Daniel said nothing.
That said everything.
Something shifted in Victoria's face then — not shame, not yet — but the first crack of real fear.
Because she was starting to understand that this wasn't just today.
This was a pattern.
And Daniel had let it go on.
"Why didn't you ever tell her?" I asked him quietly.
He didn't answer.
And that was the moment I realized something I hadn't expected.
This wasn't only about Victoria.
There was something Daniel wasn't saying.
Something behind his silence that had nothing to do with protecting me.
The neighbor across the street was still watching.
And then Victoria's phone lit up.
She looked down at the screen — and went completely still.
I saw the name on it before she turned it over.
It wasn't a name I recognized.
But Daniel did.
His jaw tightened.
May you like
Just once.
"Don't answer that," he said.
