Chapter 5 - THE LIE HE TOLD EVERYONE
Rachel did not understand the urology charges yet.
She knew something else first.
Daniel had lied about her for years.
His mother, Evelyn Bennett, called the next morning.
Rachel expected anger.
She got confusion.
“Daniel says you took the girls because you two fought about another baby.”
Rachel almost laughed.
“We haven’t talked seriously about another baby in two years.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said, “Rachel, he told us you refused.”
Daniel had apparently told his mother, his brother Adam, and several relatives that Rachel had decided two children were enough and that Daniel had sacrificed his chance for a son to keep his marriage.
He had turned himself into the wounded husband.
Rachel remembered Thanksgiving dinners when Evelyn made comments about “women who close the door on their husbands’ dreams.”
She remembered Adam once telling Daniel, “You can’t force Rachel to have another kid.”
Daniel had stared at the floor.
Rachel had assumed Adam was criticizing him.
Now she understood Adam had been defending her against a decision she had never made.
“I asked Daniel to go to a fertility appointment,” Rachel told Evelyn. “Twice.”
“He said you canceled them.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Evelyn’s voice weakened.
“Why would he lie about that?”
Rachel looked at the insurance claims on her laptop.
“I don’t know yet.”
There were three dates.
A consultation.
A procedure.
A follow-up.
The procedure had taken place eighteen months earlier.
Rachel remembered that week.
Daniel had told her he pulled a groin muscle fixing a gate and spent two days sleeping downstairs because the stairs hurt.
He had refused to let Rachel drive him to a doctor.
Suddenly the memory felt wrong.
Before Rachel could say more, Evelyn whispered, “There’s something else.”
Two months earlier, Daniel had asked Evelyn for $20,000 to keep the farm afloat.
May you like
He told her Rachel wouldn’t contribute because she was saving money to leave.
Rachel hadn’t had a savings account of her own until yesterday.
