Chapter 3 - THE DEBT DANIEL NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT
Thomas’s face changed when Daniel said Mark’s name.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
That frightened me more.
“Who is Mark?” I asked.
Neither man answered immediately.
I looked at Thomas.
“You know him.”
“Mark Ellison,” he said. “Daniel’s oldest friend.”
Daniel gave a bitter laugh.
“He’s more than that.”
Thomas ignored him.
“Mark is finance director at Whitmore Development.”
I looked at Daniel.
“So you forged my signature to pay one of your employees?”
“He isn’t my employee.”
“Fine. Your friend. Your coworker. Your golf partner. I don’t care what he is.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then make it like something.”
Daniel stared at the empty room.
For a moment, I saw the man I had married.
Not the arrogant stranger from the yacht video.
The other Daniel.
The man who had held my hand at every ultrasound.
The man who cried when we heard two heartbeats.
That was what had made the last month so difficult.
Monsters were easy to leave.
People who had once been good to you were harder.
Daniel sat down.
There was no chair, so he lowered himself onto the edge of the built-in window seat.
“Mark and I made an investment.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“What investment?”
“Last year.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Daniel looked at him.
“A development outside Bend.”
Thomas stared.
“The Juniper Ridge project?”
Daniel said nothing.
Thomas swore under his breath.
I had never heard him swear before.
“What is Juniper Ridge?”
“A private development proposal,” Thomas said. “We rejected it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You rejected it.”
“I rejected it because the environmental review was incomplete.”
“It would have made millions.”
“It also would have exposed the company to millions in liability.”
“So Mark and I did it ourselves.”
My stomach twisted.
“With what money?”
Daniel rubbed his hands together.
“Some of mine.”
“And the rest?”
He didn’t answer.
Thomas did.
“Borrowed money.”
Daniel looked up sharply.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do now.”
I held up the forged loan document.
“Was this part of it?”
“No.”
That answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
I stared at him.
“Then what was this for?”
Daniel looked at Thomas.
“You want the whole story?”
“I think your wife has earned it.”
Daniel’s laugh was humorless.
“Now you care what she deserves?”
Something passed between them.
Old anger.
Older than me.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Daniel stood.
“Ask him.”
Thomas’s expression closed.
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You want to know why I needed eighty-four thousand dollars?”
“Yes.”
“Because he threatened to destroy me.”
I looked at Thomas.
Thomas didn’t flinch.
“Explain.”
Daniel nodded.
“Gladly.”
Two years earlier, before we knew I was pregnant, Daniel and Mark had invested nearly $200,000 in Juniper Ridge.
The project collapsed.
Permits were delayed.
A contractor sued.
The land became worth less than half what they had paid.
Daniel owed money.
A lot of money.
“I could have handled it,” he said.
Thomas interrupted.
“You were missing payments.”
“Because Claire was pregnant with twins.”
I actually stepped backward.
“Do not put this on them.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“You just did.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“I was trying to keep everything normal.”
“Normal?”
I held up the statement.
“You forged my name.”
“After.”
“After what?”
His eyes went to his father again.
Thomas looked exhausted now.
“Daniel came to me for money.”
“And you said no?”
Thomas nodded.
“Why?”
“Because it wasn’t the first time.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel’s face hardened.
Thomas continued.
“When Daniel was twenty-eight, he lost almost ninety thousand dollars on a restaurant investment.”
“It wasn’t gambling.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“You always make it sound like I’m some reckless idiot.”
“You hid the debt from Claire.”
“Because I knew exactly what would happen if I told her.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
His eyes met mine.
“You’d look at me the way you’re looking at me now.”
Something in my chest broke a little.
Not because I pitied him.
Because I understood.
Daniel had not lied because he didn’t know the truth.
He lied because he knew the truth might give me a choice.
And he didn’t want me to have one.
Thomas sat on the windowsill opposite him.
“I paid the restaurant debt.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“And I told you I would never do it again.”
“You didn’t just tell me.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“You humiliated me.”
Thomas’s eyes narrowed.
“You came into my office asking for ninety thousand dollars after lying to everyone for a year.”
“You made me sign over my voting shares.”
That caught my attention.
“What?”
Daniel looked at me.
“He saved me, Claire. That’s the story everyone loves.”
He pointed at Thomas.
“But he made sure I paid for it.”
Thomas said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“He took control of the shares my grandfather left me. Said I’d earn them back when I proved I could be responsible.”
“Did you?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
For once, Thomas didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
I looked at him.
“You knew Daniel had serious financial problems before we got married?”
Thomas met my eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
I actually laughed.
“Interesting.”
“Claire—”
“No. You don’t get to stand in this room acting like the good man who finally came to rescue me.”
Thomas looked wounded.
Good.
“I sat across from you at our rehearsal dinner,” I said. “You told me Daniel had finally found someone who brought out the best in him.”
“I believed that.”
“You knew he had hidden nearly ninety thousand dollars in debt.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he had lied.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
Daniel looked almost satisfied.
That made me angrier.
I turned to him.
“Don’t smile. His failure doesn’t erase yours.”
His face fell.
Thomas slowly stood.
“You’re right.”
I hadn’t expected that.
He nodded once.
“I protected my son’s reputation when I should have made him face what he had done.”
Daniel scoffed.
“You protected the Whitmore name.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Yes.”
That stopped everyone.
“I told myself they were the same thing.”
His voice was quieter now.
“They weren’t.”
I looked at the forged loan document again.
“Then what happened with Mark?”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“When Juniper Ridge collapsed, Mark owed people money too.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“That isn’t a number.”
“Three hundred thousand.”
I stared.
Daniel quickly added, “Not all mine.”
“How much was yours?”
He looked away.
“One hundred and twenty.”
My legs felt weak.
“You were one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in debt while I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was going to fix it.”
I almost screamed.
Instead, I whispered, “You keep saying that.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“What was I supposed to tell you? That while you were buying two cribs, I might lose the house?”
“You were supposed to tell me the truth.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From information?”
“From fear.”
“No, Daniel.”
I stepped closer.
“You were protecting yourself from consequences.”
He looked at me for a long time.
Then his shoulders dropped.
Maybe because he knew I was right.
Thomas pointed at the loan document.
“So the eighty-four thousand went to Mark?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep him quiet.”
Thomas went still.
I felt the room tilt again.
“Quiet about what?” I asked.
Daniel didn’t answer.
Thomas stepped toward him.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing you haven’t already suspected.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Daniel reached for the bank statement.
Thomas pulled it away.
“Talk.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“Mark found a way to move money between project accounts.”
Thomas stared at him.
“No.”
“We replaced it.”
“Daniel.”
“We always replaced it.”
My skin went cold.
“You stole from your father’s company?”
Daniel turned toward me.
“It wasn’t stealing.”
Thomas’s voice exploded.
“It was absolutely stealing.”
“It was temporary.”
“So was the ten thousand from my babies?” I asked.
Daniel shut his eyes.
Then Thomas grabbed the loan statement.
He scanned the transaction section.
His expression changed.
“What?”
I moved beside him.
One transfer stood out.
$61,000.
The recipient wasn’t Mark Ellison.
It wasn’t Savannah.
It wasn’t even a bank I recognized.
It said:
WHITMORE FAMILY HOLDINGS.
Thomas stared at it.
“I never received this money.”
Daniel looked confused.
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
Thomas pointed at the transaction.
“This account was closed three years ago.”
Daniel’s face emptied.
Thomas looked at me.
Then at his son.
And suddenly the story we had just heard no longer made sense.
Because Daniel may have forged my signature.
Daniel may have lied about his debt.
But somebody else had been using a dead Whitmore company account.
Thomas lowered the paper.
“Daniel, who gave you these wire instructions?”
May you like
Daniel whispered one name.
“Mark.”
