Chapter 4 - THE FIRST THING DANIEL COULD NOT UNDO
Daniel called Megan the next morning.
She answered only because he used the office line.
“What?”
No hello.
No politeness.
Daniel deserved that.
“I need to ask you about letters Claire sent me.”
Silence.
Then Megan said, “You’re kidding.”
“No.”
“You’re actually kidding.”
“I found certified-mail records.”
Another silence.
This one was different.
“Three deliveries,” Daniel continued. “Victoria signed for all of them.”
Megan inhaled.
“Did you read them?”
“I never received them.”
Daniel heard something hit a counter on Megan’s end.
“You told Claire you did.”
“No.”
“She thought you did.”
“Megan—”
“She thought you read every word and chose Victoria anyway.”
Daniel sat down.
“What words?”
Megan’s voice cracked.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Megan said, “I’m not doing this over the phone.”
She agreed to meet him at a coffee shop in Westport.
Not his house.
Not his office.
Neutral ground.
Megan arrived wearing scrubs beneath a winter coat. She was a nurse practitioner at Norwalk Hospital and looked more exhausted than angry.
She did not hug him.
She placed a thin folder on the table.
“Claire made copies of almost everything.”
Daniel stared at it.
Megan kept one hand over the folder.
“I’m not giving you this until you answer something.”
“Okay.”
“Were you sleeping with Victoria before Claire died?”
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“No.”
Megan watched him closely.
“Were you in love with her?”
Daniel looked away.
“That’s not the same question.”
“It’s the one I asked.”
He thought about Victoria sitting beside him during midnight board calls.
Victoria knowing how he took his coffee.
Victoria telling him Claire was unreasonable.
Victoria putting one hand on his shoulder in the elevator after Daniel’s father died and leaving it there too long.
“I don’t know what I was.”
Megan laughed bitterly.
“Claire did.”
She removed her hand.
Inside the folder was not one letter.
There were copies of all three.
Daniel did not touch them immediately.
“Why didn’t anyone give these to me after she died?”
“Because Claire believed you already had the originals.”
“Why didn’t you mention them?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“At the funeral reception.”
Daniel tried to remember.
There had been two hundred people in the house.
Food he never ate.
Condolences he never heard.
Lily crying upstairs.
Megan had cornered him near the library.
She had said something about Claire trying.
Daniel had responded that they both had.
Then Victoria interrupted.
Daniel remembered that now.
Megan pushed the folder closer.
“You weren’t ready to hear anything that didn’t fit the story you’d already decided was true.”
Daniel opened the first letter.
April 11.
Claire wrote that she was angry, exhausted, and unwilling to return to the marriage without counseling.
But she did want counseling.
She gave him three dates.
Daniel had never seen them.
The second letter was dated May 2.
Claire wrote that she had spoken with a therapist and wanted Daniel to attend alone first if meeting together felt impossible.
Again, Daniel had never seen it.
Then he reached the June letter.
Megan said, “Read that one carefully.”
Daniel did.
Halfway down the page, his fingers stopped.
Claire had written:
I need you to decide whether Victoria is your consultant, your friend, or the person you’ve already chosen to replace me. I cannot keep trying to repair a marriage while another woman decides when my husband is allowed to hear from me.
Daniel read the sentence twice.
Then the final paragraph.
If there is anything left between us, come to the house Sunday at six. No lawyers. No Victoria. No company. Just us.
The certified envelope had been delivered Friday.
Daniel had spent Sunday evening at Victoria’s apartment in Manhattan discussing investor communications.
At least that was what he had called it.
Megan watched his face.
“Claire waited until nine.”
Daniel closed the letter.
Outside, somebody laughed on the sidewalk.
A coffee grinder screamed behind the counter.
Ordinary sounds.
Daniel wanted all of them to stop.
Megan said, “She thought your silence was an answer.”
Daniel looked at the three letters.
For nine months, he had blamed Claire for giving up.
May you like
Now he had proof she had not.
And Victoria had possessed every opportunity to make sure he never knew.
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