Chapter 4 - THE MESSAGE THAT WAS CUT IN HALF
The full message was seven words long.
Stop calling Mom. I want you gone.
Marcus had taken a screenshot that showed only the middle:
Mom. I want you.
Daniel had seen the original conversation. Lily watched him read it months earlier at our dining-room table. He knew Marcus had altered the message.
Still, he had told me Marcus believed Lily wanted contact.
“He said it would be easier if you thought that,” Lily whispered.
I had to leave the room before she saw what those words did to me.
Daniel came to Megan’s townhouse that evening after agreeing to stay on the porch. Rain tapped against the gutter while Noah slept against my chest.
I held the screen door locked between us.
“You knew the message was fake.”
Daniel looked toward the driveway. “Marcus was desperate.”
“So you rewarded him?”
“My company was collapsing. Two clients hadn’t paid. The house was sixty days from foreclosure.”
“We had savings.”
“Your mother’s money.”
“My money,” I said. “Our family’s money.”
He pressed his forehead against the wet screen. “I couldn’t tell you I’d failed again.”
Again.
Before we married, Daniel had lost a previous business and spent five years rebuilding his credit. He had promised he would never hide financial trouble from me. I had believed the promise because he seemed ashamed of breaking it once.
Marcus had offered him eight thousand dollars as a private loan. In return, Daniel agreed to encourage me to revise the protection order after Marcus completed treatment.
“When you refused to discuss him, the interest changed,” Daniel said.
“What does that mean?”
“Marcus started asking for information. Your appointments. Lily’s school schedule. The due date.”
My arms tightened around Noah.
Daniel insisted he never shared Lily’s school schedule. He admitted sharing the hospital name, my induction date, and our room number. He had allowed Marcus to photograph his badge so he could enter without being listed as a visitor.
“I thought he wanted to talk,” he said.
“He walked toward my newborn.”
“I didn’t know he’d say that.”
“You didn’t stay to find out.”
Daniel began crying quietly, which only made me angrier. He wanted the sight of his regret to become part of my decision.
I asked how Marcus knew our mortgage balance, Daniel’s client list, and the amount in my mother’s education account for Lily.
Daniel wiped his face.
“He had copies.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
But his eyes shifted toward the darkened window.
May you like
I understood then that Marcus had not discovered Daniel’s financial crisis by accident.
Daniel had gone to him first.
