Chapter 5 - The Secret That Started Before the Affair
Claire did not slap him.
For one terrible second, she wanted to.
Instead she laughed.
The sound frightened them both.
"Rebecca."
Daniel lifted his hands.
"It wasn't what you think."
Claire laughed harder.
"Of course it wasn't."
"She wasn't—"
"Four years?"
"No."
"You told me this started in April."
"It did."
"You were drinking with her the day I went into labor."
"With a group."
Claire went completely still.
"What group?"
"People from work. Mike. Eddie. Rebecca. Two drivers."
"So you weren't alone."
"No."
Claire searched his face.
"Did anything happen with her then?"
"No."
"Anything."
"No."
"Did you want something to?"
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation again.
Claire closed her eyes.
"Get off my porch."
"Claire—"
"Now."
He backed away.
"No kiss. No touching. Nothing happened."
"But you noticed her."
He said nothing.
"Didn't you?"
"She was recently divorced."
"That isn't an answer."
"Yes."
Claire looked at the receipt.
The past rearranged itself.
Rebecca bringing casserole after Claire's mother had surgery.
Rebecca at Christmas.
Rebecca hugging Grace.
Rebecca had not entered their lives this year.
She had been there the whole time.
Claire suddenly felt watched by her own memories.
"Why was she at the bar?"
"Everyone was."
"Why did someone send this to your mother?"
"I don't know."
"Who had the receipt?"
"I don't know."
Daniel looked genuinely confused.
That did not matter.
Claire opened the front door.
"I need you gone."
"When can I see Grace?"
"I am not keeping you from Grace. Call her later."
"Claire."
She stopped.
"I never touched Rebecca four years ago."
Claire looked over her shoulder.
"You don't understand what hurts anymore."
She closed the door.
Then she called Rebecca.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Claire drove to her apartment.
She knew the address because Daniel's bank transfer included it.
Rebecca lived in a brick complex behind a grocery store.
Claire knocked.
Nothing.
She knocked again.
A neighbor opened the next door.
"She's gone."
Claire turned.
"What?"
"Moved yesterday."
"Do you know where?"
The woman shook her head.
Claire's stomach tightened.
Rebecca had returned the money.
Sold her car.
Moved.
And then a four-year-old bar receipt appeared.
Something did not fit.
Claire called Monica.
Her sister arrived twenty minutes later and listened to everything.
"Someone is trying to make it look like Daniel and Rebecca started years ago."
"Maybe they did."
"Do you believe that?"
Claire stared through the windshield.
"I don't know what I believe."
"Then don't let whoever sent that letter choose for you."
Monica was right.
Claire hated it.
That afternoon Daniel texted.
I remembered something.
Claire did not answer.
He sent another.
The night at O'Malley's, Mike paid the tab. I reimbursed him. I don't know why my name is on a receipt.
Claire stared.
Then called.
"What do you mean?"
"Mike opened the tab. We split it."
"Then why does the receipt say Daniel Mercer?"
"I don't know."
"Could Rebecca have had a copy?"
"Maybe. She collected everyone's cash."
Claire's pulse quickened.
"Why?"
"She was sitting near the register."
Claire thought.
"Who knew I was pregnant?"
"Everyone."
"Who knew you ignored my call?"
Daniel was silent.
"Who, Daniel?"
"Mike."
Claire closed her eyes.
"And Rebecca?"
"Not then."
"Who did you tell first?"
Daniel took a long breath.
"Mike."
There it was.
The man who later approved fraudulent overtime.
The man who warned Claire about the audit before the news.
The man who knew Daniel's oldest shame.
"Why would Mike send the letter?"
"I don't know."
Claire remembered the investigation.
Daniel had cooperated.
Mike had not.
Daniel's testimony could cost Mike his job and perhaps his freedom.
Revenge.
"Did investigators ask about anything four years ago?"
"No."
"Then he isn't trying to affect the case."
"Maybe he's trying to affect me."
"By destroying your marriage?"
Daniel was silent.
Claire almost laughed.
"That part was already underway."
At five Daniel received another message.
A photograph this time.
He forwarded it to Claire.
The image showed Rebecca and Daniel outside O'Malley's four years earlier.
Rebecca was laughing.
Daniel had one hand near her back.
Not touching.
Close enough to suggest what someone wanted suggested.
Underneath:
YOU THINK THIS STARTED IN APRIL?
Claire felt nauseated.
Monica studied the photograph.
"Who took it?"
"No idea."
"Could be innocent."
"Could be anything."
Grace entered the kitchen.
"What are you looking at?"
Claire turned the phone over.
"Nothing."
Grace frowned.
"You're lying now too."
The words hit harder than intended.
Claire stared.
Grace's eyes filled.
"Everybody lies."
She ran upstairs.
Monica whispered, "Go."
Claire followed.
Grace sat on the floor beside her bed.
Claire sat beside her.
"I'm sorry."
Grace looked away.
"Is Dad coming home?"
"I don't know."
"Why can't you just tell me?"
"Because I truly don't know."
Grace wiped her cheek.
"Did Dad cheat?"
Claire closed her eyes.
Children did not remain children simply because adults needed them to.
"Yes."
Grace inhaled sharply.
"With Rebecca?"
"Yes."
"Did they..."
"No."
Claire believed that.
At least she thought she did.
"They kissed."
Grace looked disgusted.
"That's cheating."
"Yes."
"Do you hate him?"
"No."
Grace frowned.
"Why?"
Because marriage was long.
Because Daniel had been beside Claire during her mother's cancer scare.
Because he taught Grace to ride a bicycle.
Because he once drove three hours to retrieve Claire's grandmother's necklace after she left it in a motel.
Because human beings were inconveniently larger than their worst decision.
Claire said, "Because loving someone and being angry with them can exist at the same time."
Grace leaned against her.
"Are you getting divorced?"
"I don't know."
Grace cried again.
Claire held her.
The anonymous messages continued.
One every day.
A screenshot of Daniel and Rebecca texting.
A photograph from the diner.
A copy of a bank transfer.
Nothing Claire did not already know.
That became suspicious.
Whoever sent them was not revealing secrets.
They were curating pain.
Claire brought everything to Margaret Ellis.
The attorney studied the papers.
"Someone wants you emotionally destabilized."
"Why?"
"Could be revenge against your husband."
"Mike?"
"Maybe."
"Can we prove it?"
"Not from this."
Margaret recommended documenting everything.
Claire did.
Three days later, Mike was arrested.
Not for overtime fraud.
For witness intimidation.
The county investigator had received threatening messages.
So had another mechanic.
Police searched Mike's house.
They found printed payroll records.
Employee schedules.
And copies of Daniel's personnel file.
Daniel called Claire after hearing.
"I think it's him."
Claire agreed.
Then Detective Lena Ortiz called.
"We found something with your name on it."
Claire's stomach dropped.
"What?"
"A folder."
Inside Mike's home office, investigators discovered photocopies of Daniel's bank statements.
Copies of Rebecca's lease.
A printout of Claire's hospital schedule.
Photographs.
The bar receipt.
Grace's school calendar.
Claire felt cold.
"Why would he have my daughter's school calendar?"
"We don't know."
"Is Grace in danger?"
"We have no evidence of a direct threat, but I recommend caution."
Claire picked Grace up early that day.
Daniel met them at the house.
For the first time since the garage, Claire wanted him there.
Not as husband.
As Grace's father.
Daniel checked windows.
Locks.
The back gate.
He slept on the couch.
Claire allowed it.
At 2:00 a.m. she found him awake in the kitchen.
"Can't sleep?"
He shook his head.
Claire poured water.
For several seconds they stood in silence.
Then Daniel said, "Mike hated me after I cooperated."
"Why you?"
"I knew more than most."
"About the overtime?"
"And cash."
Claire turned.
"What cash?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
Claire almost screamed.
"Are you serious?"
"I didn't take it."
"What cash?"
Daniel explained.
Maintenance vendors sometimes paid Mike kickbacks for steering repair contracts.
Daniel had seen envelopes.
He told himself it was none of his business.
During the overtime investigation, county investigators asked whether Mike had other financial irregularities.
Daniel told them.
Claire stared at him.
"So Mike could go to prison because of your statement."
"Partly."
"And you didn't think I should know?"
"I wasn't allowed to discuss the investigation."
"Grace's school calendar was in his house."
"I didn't know he was watching us."
Claire pressed both hands to the counter.
Daniel moved closer, then stopped himself.
"Claire."
"What?"
"I'm sorry."
"For which part?"
"All of it."
She looked at him.
He seemed genuinely destroyed.
Claire's anger softened for half a second.
That frightened her more than anger.
She looked away.
"Sleep."
Daniel returned to the couch.
The next morning, police confirmed Mike had sent the anonymous mail.
His phone contained photographs of envelopes.
Draft messages.
A list titled MERCER PRESSURE.
He had hoped Daniel would recant cooperation with investigators if his marriage collapsed and his family blamed him for the scandal.
It was irrational.
Vindictive.
Desperate.
It had also almost worked.
But the investigation produced one unexpected discovery.
The old photograph outside O'Malley's had not been taken by Mike.
It had been sent to him recently.
By Rebecca.
Claire stared at Detective Ortiz.
"Why?"
"We don't know."
"Did you ask her?"
"We're trying to locate her."
Rebecca's apartment was empty.
Her phone disconnected.
Her attorney claimed not to know where she had gone.
Daniel looked stunned when Claire told him.
"I don't understand."
Claire did.
Not fully.
But she finally understood one thing.
Rebecca had not disappeared because she was ashamed.
May you like
She had disappeared because she was afraid.
The question was of whom.
