Chapter 9 - Lauren’s Part in the Lie
It would have been easier if Lauren were innocent.
She wasn’t.
Daniel learned that during mediation concerning Owen.
His attorney asked Lauren when she stopped believing Robert’s claim that Daniel wanted nothing to do with the child.
Lauren looked down.
“About three years ago.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What happened three years ago?”
“I saw an interview with you.”
Daniel remembered it.
A Chicago business magazine had profiled Harper Development.
The interviewer asked about family.
Daniel had said he and Claire hoped to have children someday.
Lauren had watched the video online.
“You looked…” She struggled. “You looked like you didn’t know.”
“So why didn’t you contact me?”
“I was afraid.”
“Of Dad?”
“Partly.”
“What else?”
Lauren looked toward the mediator.
Then back at Daniel.
“I had built a life around telling Owen you weren’t available.”
Daniel’s anger rose.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is.”
Lauren’s eyes filled.
“If I contacted you and you wanted him, everything changed. If you rejected him, I would have hurt him twice.”
“So you chose for me too.”
“Yes.”
The honesty disarmed him more than an excuse would have.
Lauren continued.
“And the money mattered.”
Claire had not attended mediation, but Daniel told her everything that night.
“She kept taking Dad’s payments after she suspected I didn’t know.”
Claire sat beside him on the couch.
“How do you feel?”
“Like everyone protected themselves with my life.”
Claire nodded.
Then Daniel said, “Including me.”
She looked at him.
“I let Dad manage everything because it was convenient. Travel. Schedules. Problems. Lauren. Even you.”
“Me?”
“I knew Mom treated you badly.”
Claire said nothing.
“I kept calling it personality conflict.”
“Yes.”
“I thought if I didn’t choose sides, it would pass.”
“You chose a side every time you stayed neutral.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
That was the first night Claire believed he was beginning to understand.
Not only what his parents had done.
What he had allowed.
Two days later, Robert’s attorney sent a letter demanding that Daniel stop making “defamatory allegations” about the family.
Attached was a proposed private settlement.
Robert would transfer a significant investment account to Owen.
Daniel would agree not to discuss the communications issue with the Harper Development board beyond what had already been disclosed.
Daniel read it twice.
Then called his attorney.
“No.”
The attorney asked if he wanted to negotiate.
“No.”
“Daniel, it’s a large amount of money for Owen.”
Daniel looked through the kitchen window at Claire watering herbs on the patio.
“That’s how my father solved this the first time.”
May you like
He folded the letter.
“He doesn’t get to buy another silence.”
