CHAPTER 2 — THE TRUTH HIS FATHER KEPT
For several seconds after Daniel finished speaking, the phone remained silent.
Then his father asked, “Is Olivia safe now?”
“She’s in the hospital. The doctors say she could’ve developed a serious infection.”
Michael Carter exhaled slowly.
Daniel could hear the anger his father was trying to control.
“I should have warned you more clearly,” Michael said.
“You warned me plenty. I just didn’t listen.”
“No, Daniel. I told you your mother was difficult. I never told you what she was capable of.”
Daniel looked toward Olivia’s hospital bed. Her face was still pale beneath the dim blue light from the monitors.
“What are you talking about?”
Michael hesitated.
“Your mother didn’t simply make our marriage miserable. She controlled everything. My paycheck. My friends. My phone calls. She even opened my mail before I came home.”
Daniel frowned.
“She said you abandoned us.”
“I left her,” Michael replied. “But I tried to take you with me.”
Daniel sat straighter.
“What?”
“I filed for joint custody. Patricia told the court I was unstable. She convinced relatives to testify that I drank too much and frightened you.”
“Did you?”
“I had one drink after work most nights. Your mother turned it into alcoholism.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
Michael continued carefully.
“The court gave her temporary primary custody. During that time, she made you terrified of me. Every visit, you cried and begged not to leave her.”
Daniel remembered fragments.
His mother gripping his shoulders before visits.
His mother whispering that his father might never bring him home.
His mother standing at the window with tears in her eyes whenever Michael’s car arrived.
“I thought you didn’t want me,” Daniel whispered.
“I called every week for two years. She blocked my number. I sent birthday cards. She returned some and destroyed the rest.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
A lifetime of resentment began cracking apart inside him.
“There’s more,” Michael said.
Daniel opened his eyes again.
“Your grandmother left you money for college. Patricia was supposed to manage the account until you turned eighteen.”
“I had a scholarship.”
“Because the money was gone.”
Daniel stood so abruptly that Sophie shifted against his chest.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“Your mother withdrew almost all of it. She used part of it to pay her debts and the rest to renovate the house.”
Daniel stared at the hospital wall.
The same house Patricia constantly reminded him she had “sacrificed everything” to keep.
“Do you have proof?”
“I kept copies of the trust documents. I also kept the letters she sent me.”
“What letters?”
“The ones where she threatened to make sure you hated me forever if I challenged her.”
Daniel’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Send me everything.”
“Daniel, once you confront her, she won’t back down.”
“She almost killed my wife.”
“No,” Michael said quietly. “She’ll tell herself Olivia almost died because Olivia was weak. Patricia never sees herself as the villain.”
Across the room, Olivia stirred.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“She’ll see it when the police do.”
Michael fell silent again.
Then he said, “There’s one more thing you need to know.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Your mother still has a key to your house.”
Daniel looked at the clock.
2:31 a.m.
The security company would not arrive until morning.
And Patricia knew Olivia was in the hospital.
Daniel immediately called the neighbor across the street.
The phone rang six times before someone answered.
“Daniel?” Mr. Brooks said sleepily.
“Can you look outside and tell me whether my mother’s car is at my house?”
Curtains shifted faintly on the other end.
May you like
Then Mr. Brooks stopped breathing.
“Daniel,” he whispered, “your front door is open.”
