Chapter 4: What Marcus Knew
My mother took one look at my face and sent Lily straight to the backyard with a popsicle and a promise of board games.
She sat across from me at the kitchen table and waited.
"Daniel got the nanny pregnant," I said.
She didn't gasp.
Didn't reach for my hand.
She just pressed her lips together and nodded slowly, the way she did when something confirmed what she'd already suspected.
"You knew something," I said.
"I didn't know.
I noticed."
"What did you notice?"
"The way he talked about her when you first told me about the hire.
Too much detail.
Too much reassurance.
Men who have nothing to hide don't explain that much."
I stared at the table.
"He says he doesn't know if it's his."
"Do you believe him?"
"I don't know what I believe.
There was a message on my phone.
From a number I don't recognize.
It said she can't find out yet.
That they need more time." I looked up.
"He said it was Marcus."
My mother was quiet for a moment.
"Call Marcus," she said.
"He'll cover for Daniel."
"Maybe.
But watch how he covers.
That tells you as much as the truth."
I called Marcus from the back porch, away from the kitchen window.
He picked up on the second ring, which meant he was either innocent or he'd been waiting.
"Rachel.
Hey."
"Did you send me a message this morning from an unknown number?"
A pause.
One beat too long.
"What message?"
"Don't do that, Marcus.
Did you send it or not?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"It said she can't find out yet.
That you need more time.
Daniel told me it was you."
Another pause.
Longer.
"Daniel told you that."
"Yes."
"Rachel." His voice shifted.
Lower.
Careful.
"I didn't send that message.
I haven't texted you in months.
Whatever Daniel told you, that wasn't me."
My hand tightened on the phone.
"Then who did?"
"I think you need to ask Daniel that question again.
And this time, don't let him redirect."
"Marcus, if you know something—"
"I know that Anna came to me six weeks ago.
Scared.
She said Daniel had asked her not to tell you about the pregnancy yet because he was trying to figure something out.
I told her that was wrong.
I told her you had a right to know." His voice went quieter.
"She said he'd told her to wait.
That he had a plan."
"A plan for what?"
He didn't answer right away.
"I don't know the full shape of it.
But Rachel — check your joint accounts.
Whatever Daniel is figuring out, it isn't just about Anna."
The line went quiet.
In the backyard, Lily laughed at something.
A bright, clean sound that had no idea what was happening twenty feet away.
I ended the call and opened my banking app with hands that had gone very still.
The joint savings account showed a balance I didn't recognize.
Not because money was missing.
Because there was far more there than there should have been.
Transfers in.
Regular ones.
Starting four months ago.
From an account I didn't recognize, in amounts just small enough not to trigger a notification.
Someone had been moving money into our account.
Quietly.
May you like
Carefully.
And I had no idea whose money it was.
