Chapter 11 - RACHEL'S VERSION OF THE TRUTH

Rachel asked to meet me.

Katherine advised against seeing her alone.

So we met in Katherine's conference room.

Rachel's lawyer sat beside her.

A recorder sat between us.

Rachel looked exhausted.

"Ethan, I know you hate me."

"I don't know what I feel."

That was true.

Hate was simple.

What I felt wasn't.

She glanced at Katherine.

"I want to tell you what happened."

"Then tell the truth."

Rachel nodded.

She had started seeing Brad two months after I deployed.

He told her I would always choose the military over her.

He told her she deserved someone present.

He told her Lily needed a father who came home every night.

I listened.

None of it excused what followed.

Rachel admitted blocking several of my scheduled video calls with Lily.

She told Lily the connection failed.

Then Brad started joking that it would be easier if I never came back.

The jokes became conversations.

The conversations became plans.

When a soldier from another unit was killed overseas, Rachel saw condolence posts spreading online.

Brad told her most civilians wouldn't understand enough military procedure to question a similar announcement.

So they created one.

She posted my photograph.

Brad created the fundraiser.

Then everything moved faster than she expected.

People believed them.

Money arrived.

Sympathy arrived.

And once the lie became public, Rachel said she felt trapped inside it.

I stared at her.

"You were trapped?"

She lowered her eyes.

"I know how that sounds."

"No."

I leaned forward.

"Lily was trapped."

Rachel started crying.

"I never meant for Brad to hurt her."

"You helped him put her outside."

"She wouldn't stop screaming."

"Because you told her I was dead."

Rachel covered her face.

"I wanted her to accept him."

There it was.

Not Brad.

Not confusion.

Not grief.

She wanted my daughter to erase me.

I stood.

The meeting was over for me.

Then Rachel suddenly said something.

"Brad kept recordings."

I stopped.

"We know."

Her head snapped up.

"You found the phones?"

Katherine's eyes narrowed.

"Why were they buried?"

Rachel looked terrified.

"Because those weren't the only phones."

I sat again.

"What else did he record?"

Rachel swallowed.

"Everything."

"Why?"

"Insurance."

"Against who?"

She whispered.

"Against me."

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Then her face crumpled.

"And maybe against you."