Chapter 2 - DANIEL’S PLAN
I had almost missed the message when I first discovered the affair.
It had been buried between conversations about Chloe’s rent and an argument over which hospital she wanted to use.
Daniel had written it at 1:17 in the morning.
Once Jennifer has the baby, everything gets easier.
Chloe had replied with a question.
What if she won’t agree?
Daniel’s answer was printed beneath it.
She will.
She always does.
I placed the page in front of Patricia.
The confidence in those three words was what had kept me awake for weeks.
Not the affair.
Not even the money.
It was the certainty.
Daniel truly believed obedience was part of my personality.
He had mistaken years of compromise for surrender.
His father, Robert, read the exchange twice.
“What were you asking Jennifer to agree to?”
Daniel pushed his chair back.
“This is ridiculous.”
I reached into the folder.
“There’s more.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
That was the first moment I knew he had forgotten some of his own lies.
I placed a second conversation on the table.
Chloe had written that she wanted Daniel present when her child was born.
Daniel had responded that he would find a way.
Then Chloe asked what would happen if Jennifer needed him at the same time.
Daniel’s answer was simple.
Jennifer has her mother.
You have me.
Patricia covered her mouth.
I remembered reading those words while I was still pregnant.
I remembered sitting in our dark kitchen at two in the morning with swollen ankles, wondering how long my husband had been dividing women into responsibilities.
My mother had me.
Chloe had him.
And apparently Daniel believed that arrangement made perfect sense.
He leaned toward me.
“You’re destroying our family over messages.”
I stared at him.
“You spent our daughter’s emergency money on another woman’s pregnancy.”
“She needed help.”
“So did your wife.”
His voice rose.
“Chloe was alone.”
“And I was married.”
That silenced him.
Robert looked down at the bank statements again.
“How much?”
Daniel looked away.
I answered.
“Just over fifteen thousand before Lily was born.”
Patricia’s eyes widened.
I continued.
“And that doesn’t include what disappeared afterward.”
Daniel’s head turned sharply.
He hadn’t expected me to know about the later payments.
I opened another section.
The party noise had faded almost completely.
Even the hotel manager standing near the entrance seemed to understand that the unpaid bill was no longer the most important problem in the room.
I put down a statement dated six days after Lily’s birth.
A $6,800 transfer had left our savings account.
Recipient: Chloe Matthews.
Robert looked at his son.
“What was that for?”
I already knew.
Daniel knew I knew.
But the person who answered was not Daniel.
A woman’s voice came from behind us.
“For my hospital bill.”
May you like
Everyone turned.
Chloe was standing in the ballroom doorway.
