Chapter 5: What Marcus Said
Marcus sat at the desk and read every letter.
He didn't speak while he read.
He turned each page carefully, the way he handled things he understood to be important.
When he finished, he stacked them back in order, placed them in the box, and put the lid on.
Then he looked at me.
"How long have you known about the USB drive?"
"An hour," I said.
"And you haven't looked at it."
"No."
He nodded slowly.
"Good.
Don't.
Not without a lawyer in the room."
"Marcus—"
"I'm serious, Daniel.
If that drive has what I think it has, you need this done correctly.
You open it alone at midnight and suddenly it's your word against hers about what was on it." He leaned forward.
"Where is she now?"
"Upstairs.
Sleeping, I assume."
"And Sofia?"
"Asleep.
She's fine."
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
He was three years older than me and had spent twenty years as a civil litigation attorney.
He had a way of going very still when he was thinking through something serious, as if all his energy moved inward.
"Tell me about the security system access," he said.
I walked him through what I had found.
The login dates.
The download history.
He listened without interrupting.
"She was building a file on you," he said when I finished.
"Probably for years.
Something she could use if you ever tried to leave, or if you ever found out what she did to Alina."
"That's what I think."
"The photographs she showed Alina — the ones of her and this Patrick."
"Alina said they were taken out of context.
Messages that looked like something they weren't."
"Veronica had access to your accounts.
To your home.
To your devices." Marcus picked up his coffee cup, found it empty, set it down.
"Daniel, she could have manufactured those.
Or found real ones and reframed them.
Either way, she used them to push Alina out of her own daughter's life."
The word landed in the room and stayed there.
"I need to find Alina," I said.
"Yes," Marcus said.
"But carefully.
If Veronica realizes what you know before you're ready, she will move first.
She's been thinking about this longer than you have." He paused.
"The USB drive — I want to bring in a colleague of mine.
Someone who handles digital evidence.
We do this properly, with documentation, with chain of custody.
If there's anything on that drive that implicates her, I want it usable."
"How long will that take?"
"A few days.
Maybe a week."
"I can't leave Sofia in this house with her for a week."
Marcus looked at me steadily.
"No," he said.
"You can't."
We sat with that for a moment.
"I'll take Sofia," he said.
"I'll tell Veronica she's staying with me for a few days.
A cousins' visit.
Nothing alarming." He paused.
"Can you hold it together for one more day?
Act normal.
Don't let her know you've read the letters."
I thought about Veronica's voice through the study door.
*Whatever she wrote, she wrote it to manipulate you.*
"Yes," I said.
"One day," Marcus said.
"Then we move."
He stood up and put on his coat.
At the door he turned back.
"Daniel.
The letters Alina wrote to Sofia — keep them somewhere Veronica can't access.
Not in this house."
I picked up the box and handed it to him.
"Take them with you tonight," I said.
He tucked the box under his arm and left without another word.
I turned off the study lamp and sat in the dark for a long time before I went upstairs.
Veronica was asleep.
Or she appeared to be.
I lay down on my side of the bed and stared at the ceiling and thought about what Marcus had said.
*She's been thinking about this longer than you have.*
In the morning, I would act normal.
I would drink my coffee and read the news and say good morning to my wife.
And I would wait.
May you like
But as I lay there in the dark, one question kept returning — the one I hadn't asked Marcus because I already knew the answer would be worse than I was ready for.
If Veronica had been planning this since before our wedding, who else had helped her?
