Chapter 6: The Man in the Wedding Photograph
At home, Claire brought our wedding album to the kitchen.
She turned to a photograph of the groomsmen and touched the man standing at my right shoulder.
“That’s Daniel.”
I stared at the face.
“His name was David Mercer.”
“He used his middle name with you.”
“He was my friend.”
“For a while, he was mine too.”
Maya shut the album.
“Stop speaking in pieces.”
Claire drew a breath.
“Daniel and I dated briefly before I met your father.
When he introduced us, Daniel pretended we had never met.
A month before the wedding, he came to me and said he still loved me.”
“And you went to him?” I asked.
“Once.”
The chair scraped as I stood.
Claire reached for me, but I stepped away.
“You let that man stand beside me while I promised you my life.”
“I was ashamed.”
“No.
Shame comes after truth.
You chose silence for nineteen years.”
Maya caught my sleeve.
“Dad, please don’t go.”
Her fingers were shaking.
That nearly broke me more than Claire’s confession.
“I’m not leaving you,” I said.
Claire began to cry.
“You should leave me.”
Maya turned on her.
“Don’t make him comfort you now.”
The room went still.
My phone lit up with a message from Evelyn.
Her examiner had traced the forged report to a printer model registered under Brooke’s salon lease.
She also attached metadata showing the file had been created on Brooke’s business account.
I showed Claire and Maya.
“She made it,” Maya said.
“Yes,” I replied.
“But she built it around a secret Claire gave her.”
Claire wiped her face.
“Brooke knew about Daniel because she found letters in our mother’s house.
She said she destroyed them.”
“Instead, she built a weapon,” I said.
The doorbell rang.
A courier handed me an envelope from Brooke’s attorney.
Inside was a demand that Claire repay Brooke $51,000 for “business obligations” and surrender her half of the salon property.
“She’s claiming I owe her?” Claire asked.
“She thinks the payment history makes her look legitimate,” I said.
Claire’s phone rang.
Brooke’s attorney, Mr.
Keller, asked to speak with all of us.
“We can resolve this privately,” he said.
“Brooke will withdraw her property claim if Claire signs a confidentiality agreement and confirms the Mustang was a gift.”
“What about the $51,000?” I asked.
“That payment satisfied a valid loan.”
“Obtained after Brooke used a forged laboratory report.”
Mr.
Keller paused.
“Brooke denies creating it.”
Evelyn’s report sat beneath my hand.
“Then she won’t mind if an examiner reviews her salon computer.”
The line went quiet.
Brooke suddenly came onto the call.
“You think a printer proves anything?”
“It proves more than your fake test,” Maya said.
“You ungrateful little girl.
I kept your family together.”
“You stole my future to buy your silence.”
“I didn’t transfer the money.
Your mother did.”
Claire leaned toward the phone.
“I will repay Maya.
And then I will testify to every threat you made.”
“You’ll lose the building.”
“Then I lose it.”
“You’ll lose your marriage.”
Claire looked at me.
“That isn’t yours to decide.”
Brooke laughed.
“Wait until he hears the last recording Daniel left.”
Claire’s face went white.
“What recording?” I demanded.
May you like
A file arrived on my phone before Brooke disconnected.
When I pressed play, Daniel’s voice said, “Claire, if Maya ever learns what we did, she can never know her father knew.”
