Chapter 7 - Behind the Wall
I did not go back with Daniel.
That disappointed him.
I could see it.
Instead, I called Claire.
Then I called a locksmith.
Then my father came with me.
Daniel drove separately.
By the time we reached the house, a private security officer hired by Claire was waiting outside.
Daniel stared at him.
“This is ridiculous.”
I unlocked my own front door.
“So was forging my signature.”
He did not answer.
His home office looked exactly as it had four months earlier.
The same desk.
The same leather chair.
The same framed wedding photograph he had never bothered to remove while messaging Chloe.
Daniel walked toward a built-in bookshelf.
He removed two books.
Then pressed something inside the cabinet.
A narrow panel clicked.
Behind it sat a digital safe.
My father looked at me.
I had lived in this house for six years.
I had never known it existed.
Daniel entered the code.
The safe opened.
Inside were stacks of documents.
Cash.
Two passports.
A jewelry box.
And several phones.
My stomach tightened.
Claire joined us by video call.
“Do not touch anything until you photograph it.”
We did.
Daniel stood near the doorway.
“I kept records.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
I lifted the top folder.
Carter Consulting LLC.
Beneath it were invoices from companies I had never heard of.
Some looked suspiciously simple.
One-page bills.
Round numbers.
No detailed services.
My father muttered, “These are fake.”
Daniel snapped, “You don’t know that.”
I opened another envelope.
Inside was $12,000 in cash.
Then another.
$8,000.
Claire’s voice came through the phone.
“Photograph serial groupings if possible.”
I moved to the passports.
One was Daniel’s.
The second belonged to Chloe.
I looked at him.
“Why do you have her passport?”
Chloe had not come with us.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“We were planning a trip.”
“When?”
He did not answer.
I checked the issue date.
Three months earlier.
Then I found two flight confirmations.
Mexico.
One-way.
Scheduled for eleven days from now.
Daniel.
Chloe.
Noah.
I stared at him.
“You were leaving?”
“No.”
“Those are one-way tickets.”
“I was going to fix things first.”
“By disappearing?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Nothing was ever like that.
I opened the jewelry box.
Inside was a diamond ring.
Not mine.
I laughed.
For the first time all night, I actually laughed.
Daniel looked offended.
“Really?”
I held up the ring.
“Were you going to propose before or after fleeing the country?”
My father turned away in disgust.
Daniel stepped closer.
“I was panicking.”
“You bought her an engagement ring.”
“I didn’t give it to her.”
I put it back.
Then I noticed a small envelope beneath the box.
My name was written across the front.
Not Jennifer.
JEN.
Only three people called me Jen.
My parents.
My sister.
And Daniel.
I opened it.
Inside was a life-insurance policy.
My life-insurance policy.
The coverage amount was $1.5 million.
Daniel was the beneficiary.
That was normal.
What was not normal was the date of a recent amendment.
It had been changed six weeks earlier.
And attached to it was a handwritten note from Daniel.
Need this finalized before trip.
I looked at Claire on the screen.
She went silent.
So did my father.
Then Daniel whispered behind me.
“You’re reading that wrong.”
May you like
I turned.
And for the first time that night, I became genuinely afraid of the man I had married.
