Chapter 4 - Sophie Wasn't the Woman I Expected
I expected to hate Sophie.
That would have been easier.
I imagined a polished woman in expensive clothes, smug because she believed she'd won my husband.
Instead, she entered Rachel's conference room wearing maternity jeans, a black sweater, and no makeup.
She looked terrified.
Her suitcase was small.
One wheel was broken.
She couldn't have been more than thirty.
I had met her once.
At Daniel's company Christmas party.
She had complimented my dress.
I had thanked her.
Now she stood in front of me carrying his child.
“Clara.”
“Sit.”
My voice surprised even me.
She sat.
Rachel remained beside me.
Michael left to give us privacy.
Sophie looked at the table.
“I know I don't deserve anything from you.”
“Good start.”
Her face flushed.
“I need to tell you what happened.”
“Why now?”
“Because Daniel came to my apartment.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted my phone.”
My attention sharpened.
“Why?”
“He said lawyers were involved and I needed to delete messages.”
Rachel immediately asked:
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Sophie placed her phone on the table.
“I backed everything up.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because I stopped trusting him.”
“When?”
She touched her stomach.
“About a month ago.”
That was interesting.
Sophie told the story.
She and Daniel worked together for three years.
Their affair began eleven months ago.
Not fourteen.
Not years.
That didn't make it better.
But details mattered.
“He told me you were separated.”
“He lied.”
“I know.”
“When did you find out?”
“Four months in.”
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
I appreciated that.
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because by then I loved him.”
I looked away.
I knew what loving Daniel felt like.
That made it worse and somehow more understandable.
“He said he was going to leave you.”
“Classic.”
“Yes.”
“And Teresa?”
Sophie looked ashamed.
“She contacted me.”
“Before pregnancy?”
“After she learned about me.”
“How?”
“Daniel told her.”
“What did she say?”
“At first she said I was destroying a marriage.”
That surprised me.
“Then what changed?”
“I got pregnant.”
Of course.
Teresa wanted grandchildren.
I had failed to provide one.
Sophie hadn't.
“She invited me to lunch,” Sophie continued. “She told me Daniel needed a family.”
My teeth clenched.
“She said you were married to your career.”
“Of course.”
“She said Daniel stayed because he felt sorry for you after your parents died.”
That hurt unexpectedly.
I looked at Sophie.
“Did you believe her?”
“Some of it.”
“Which part?”
“That you didn't love him anymore.”
I almost laughed.
Seven months of cleaning Teresa's apartment.
Paying thousands.
Cooking.
Trying.
All because I loved her son enough to keep sacrificing.
“She said you'd leave eventually.”
Sophie wiped tears.
“She said if I was patient, Daniel and I could start clean after Christmas.”
The photograph.
Soon you won't have to hide anymore.
“What did you know about the money?”
“At first, nothing.”
“When did you learn?”
“When Teresa accidentally forwarded me a transfer screenshot.”
“What did it show?”
“My name.”
“And?”
“Your name.”
I closed my eyes.
“What did you do?”
“I asked Daniel.”
“What did he say?”
“That it was joint marital money and you knew.”
I laughed.
Sophie looked down.
“I believed him because I'm an idiot.”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“You made a selfish choice.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn't require you to be stupid.”
She began crying.
I didn't comfort her.
But I wasn't going to become Teresa either.
“What else?”
Sophie opened her suitcase.
It wasn't clothes.
Documents.
Copies.
USB drives.
Printed emails.
Rachel leaned forward.
“Where did you get these?”
“Daniel kept them at my apartment.”
“Why?”
“He said Teresa's place wasn't safe anymore.”
I stared.
My husband's mistress had unknowingly become his document storage.
Sophie continued.
“A month ago, I found invoices.”
“Miller Engineering?”
Her face changed.
“Yes.”
Rachel and I exchanged a glance.
“What do you know?”
“Daniel approves vendors for large infrastructure projects.”
I knew that.
“He said vendors sometimes pay referral fees.”
Rachel said, “His employer permits that?”
“No.”
“Then they're kickbacks.”
Sophie closed her eyes.
“I think so.”
“How much?”
“Hundreds of thousands.”
I leaned back.
“And Teresa?”
“The LLC is in her name.”
“Why?”
“Daniel said married couples are easier to investigate financially than parents.”
I stared.
He had used his mother to hide money.
His mother used me to fund his mistress.
They deserved each other.
Then Sophie said something unexpected.
“Not all the money was his.”
“What?”
“Some belonged to someone named Victor Hale.”
Rachel frowned.
“Who?”
“Executive at Weston.”
Daniel's company.
A senior vice president.
I'd met him twice.
Silver hair.
Expensive watch.
Always called me “Danny's girl” even though I hated it.
“Daniel is doing this with his boss?”
“I think Victor started it.”
Sophie handed Rachel an email.
Daniel:
V says M account still clean. Keep it there until audit cycle closes.
Teresa:
Then Clara better keep paying because I'm not using my own checking to cover Daniel's mess.
My stomach twisted.
They had used my $3,000 partly because Teresa did not want the illegal account paying obvious personal expenses.
My legitimate money covered the apartment and insurance.
Dirty money stayed hidden.
I had been used as camouflage.
Sophie opened another file.
“There's more about the insurance.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“Daniel told me you both had policies.”
“We didn't.”
“I know.”
“He said if something happened to you, the money would pay the HELOC and allow him to buy out your share of the house.”
I felt sick.
“Did he ever talk about something happening to me?”
“No.”
She looked directly at me.
“Never.”
That mattered.
Then she hesitated.
“But Teresa did.”
My skin chilled.
“What did she say?”
“It wasn't a threat.”
“What did she say?”
“We were at lunch.”
Sophie swallowed.
“She said, ‘Some women work themselves into an early grave. Clara is one of them.’”
My hands tightened.
“Anything else?”
“She said if you weren't around, Daniel's life would become simpler.”
Rachel wrote it down.
I didn't know whether it meant anything legally.
Emotionally, it meant plenty.
Teresa had sat in her apartment while I changed her sheets during the flu and apparently discussed how convenient my death might be.
Sophie pushed the phone toward me.
“There's one message I think you should see.”
It was from Daniel.
Sent two months earlier.
Mom keeps asking whether the policy is active. Don't discuss it with her. She's becoming weird about Clara.
I stared.
Interesting.
Daniel had forged the policy.
But even he seemed uncomfortable with Teresa's fixation.
“What was weird?”
“I asked him once,” Sophie said.
“He told me Teresa was angry because you refused to put her on your work health plan.”
I almost laughed.
She had asked.
Three years earlier.
I said no because she wasn't my dependent.
She treated it like betrayal.
Sophie continued:
“I don't think Daniel planned to hurt you.”
“That's a low bar.”
“I know.”
“But I think Teresa scares him more than he admits.”
I looked at her.
“Daniel is forty.”
“I know.”
“His fear of his mother is not my responsibility.”
“No.”
At least Sophie understood that.
Then Rachel asked the most important question.
“Why did you bring this today?”
Sophie touched her stomach.
“Because Daniel told me we should leave Chicago.”
I stared.
“Where?”
“Toronto.”
“Why?”
“He said the company audit was getting dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“He said Victor would blame him if anyone found the payments.”
“What did you say?”
“No.”
Sophie looked exhausted.
“I have family here. A job. Doctors.”
Then she cried.
“And I realized he wasn't leaving one wife to build a family with me.”
Her hand covered her stomach.
“He was running and expected me to follow.”
For the first time, I saw Sophie not as the woman who replaced me.
But as the next woman Daniel expected to rearrange herself around his fear.
I knew that job.
I had resigned.
Sophie gave Rachel permission to copy everything.
Then she stood.
“I should go.”
“Where?”
“A hotel.”
I looked at the suitcase.
“You left the apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Because Daniel came there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel safe?”
She hesitated.
“No.”
I hated that answer.
Not because I was responsible for her.
Because I was a nurse.
Because she was pregnant.
Because regardless of what she'd done to me, I didn't want another woman trapped by Daniel and Teresa.
Rachel helped Sophie connect with her own attorney.
Not mine.
Separate interests.
Important.
Then Sophie turned at the door.
“Clara?”
“Yes?”
“The necklace.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Teresa has been telling everyone you stole it.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Sophie looked almost embarrassed.
“She said she wants to report you.”
“Let her.”
Rachel smiled.
“I have the receipt.”
Sophie blinked.
“You kept it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I bought it three days before her birthday.”
The necklace was still in my purse.
Sophie looked at it.
“Sell it.”
“What?”
She shrugged sadly.
“Buy the boots.”
I stared at her.
Then, despite everything, I laughed.
She did too.
For one strange second, we were simply two women standing inside the wreckage of the same man's lies.
Then Rachel's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She listened.
Then looked at me.
“Daniel's employer just placed him on administrative leave.”
My heartbeat increased.
“Why?”
“Internal audit.”
Sophie went pale.
Rachel continued.
“And apparently Victor Hale didn't show up for work today.”
The room became silent.
“Where is he?” I asked.
Rachel ended the call.
“Nobody knows.”
Then Sophie's face changed.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
She grabbed her phone.
“Victor called Daniel last night.”
“How do you know?”
“Daniel was at my apartment. I heard part of it.”
“What did Victor say?”
Sophie looked at us.
“He said, ‘If the nurse starts digging, we all go down.’”
The nurse.
Me.
May you like
I had spent seven months being treated like the least important person in their family.
Apparently I had just become the most dangerous.
