Chapter 5 - Daniel Had Lied Once Before
They moved to Daniel’s car.
He wouldn’t start the engine.
For several seconds he simply held the steering wheel.
Lucas had been five.
Bethany had been watching him for less than an hour during a family barbecue while Daniel helped Walter move furniture in the garage.
Lucas knocked over a tray of food and laughed when Bethany scolded him.
Bethany grabbed him hard enough to leave finger-shaped marks on his upper arm.
Then she shut him inside a pantry.
Nathan felt sick.
It was too close.
“Did you see it?”
“No. I heard him crying.”
Daniel had taken photographs after finding Lucas.
Rachel saw them that night.
She wanted Daniel to report what happened and stop bringing Lucas around Bethany.
Daniel initially agreed.
Then Walter and Diane became involved.
Walter reminded Daniel that his mortgage loan was through the family company.
Diane insisted Bethany had been struggling after her divorce and had “lost control for one minute.”
Then she said something Daniel remembered word for word.
“If you make this public, this family is finished.”
Nathan looked at him.
“The same thing she said to me.”
Daniel nodded.
That was the first clue Nathan couldn’t explain away as coincidence.
“What happened to the pictures?”
Daniel looked toward the windshield.
“I deleted them.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because I was thirty-two, broke, terrified of losing my job, and stupid enough to believe my parents—”
“They’re not your parents.”
Daniel corrected himself.
“Your parents. My aunt and uncle. They’d helped me with everything. I thought I owed them.”
“What did Rachel do?”
“She left.”
Not immediately.
First she waited for Daniel to tell the truth.
Then she discovered he had minimized the incident when relatives asked.
She stopped trusting him to protect Lucas around the family.
Their marriage deteriorated over the next year.
Daniel never lost access to his son, but Rachel made family gatherings a hard boundary.
Everyone blamed her.
Daniel let them.
Nathan remembered joining those conversations.
He had called Rachel vindictive once.
Daniel had been sitting three chairs away.
Nathan looked at him now.
“Why didn’t you correct me?”
Daniel gave a tired shrug.
“Because then I’d have to tell you what I’d done.”
Nathan’s anger shifted direction.
Not away from Daniel.
But wider.
Bethany had hurt a child.
Diane had demanded silence.
Walter had applied financial pressure.
Daniel had complied.
Then the rest of them had spent years blaming the one person who refused to participate.
Nathan opened the car door.
Daniel caught his sleeve.
“There’s something else.”
Nathan looked back.
Daniel said, “Bethany knew I still regretted deleting those photos.”
“So?”
“That’s why she grabbed my wrist at the party.”
Nathan frowned.
Daniel shook his head.
“No. You still don’t understand.”
May you like
He looked genuinely frightened again.
“She knew exactly what I was trying to stop from happening to your phone.”
Related Stories
