Chapter 3 - THE LIE WE BOTH MARRIED
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Not Daniel.
Not Vanessa.
Not Margaret.
Not me.
The only person in the room who seemed unaware that an entire family had just detonated was six-year-old Ethan, who was staring at the Christmas garland wrapped around Margaret's staircase.
“Can I see the train?” he asked.
A miniature electric train circled beneath the tree.
Margaret recovered first.
“Of course.”
She crouched.
“Robert, would you show Ethan?”
Robert looked at his son with an expression I had never seen before.
Disgust.
Then he took Ethan gently by the shoulder.
“Come on, buddy.”
When they disappeared into the family room, Margaret closed the living-room doors.
Then she turned.
“Everyone sits.”
Daniel remained standing.
“Mom—”
“Sit.”
He sat.
So did Vanessa.
I remained near the fireplace.
Vanessa looked at me.
“He told me you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Ethan was his.”
Daniel covered his face.
“Vanessa.”
“No.” She turned on him. “You don't get to do that.”
Her voice shook.
“You said Emily knew everything.”
I felt strangely calm.
“When?”
“When we reconnected.”
“Which was?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
Exactly when the payments started.
Vanessa continued.
“We ran into each other at our high-school reunion. I told Daniel my divorce was becoming ugly. He asked about Ethan.”
“Because he already knew?”
She nodded.
My stomach twisted.
“How long has Daniel known Ethan might be his son?”
Vanessa stared at him.
“Since before Ethan was born.”
I looked at my husband.
Seven years of marriage collapsed into arithmetic.
Daniel and I had been dating when Ethan was conceived.
We had been engaged when Ethan was born.
“You knew before our wedding?”
Daniel stood.
“It wasn't that simple.”
I laughed.
The sound surprised even me.
“That's what people say when the simple version makes them look terrible.”
“Vanessa told me Ethan probably wasn't mine.”
Vanessa shot to her feet.
“I said I didn't know!”
Daniel turned toward her.
“You were dating Tyler!”
“And sleeping with you!”
Margaret closed her eyes.
I felt something inside me go still.
Not break.
Still.
That was worse.
Daniel approached me.
“Emily, listen to me.”
“Don't touch me.”
He stopped.
“When Ethan was born, Vanessa was with Tyler. Tyler signed the birth certificate. I believed he was the father.”
“For six years?”
Daniel hesitated.
There it was again.
The missing piece.
“When did you find out?”
“Last year.”
“How?”
“Tyler had a DNA test done during the divorce.”
Vanessa spoke quietly.
“It proved Tyler wasn't Ethan's biological father.”
“And then?”
“I contacted Daniel.”
“And Daniel took a test?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“Yes.”
The room blurred for half a second.
“Positive?”
He nodded.
I looked toward the closed doors where Ethan was laughing at the toy train.
An innocent child.
None of this was his fault.
That somehow made Daniel's choices worse.
“You discovered you had a son fourteen months ago,” I said, “and you didn't tell your wife.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“I needed time.”
“You had fourteen months.”
“I was scared.”
“So you rented Vanessa an apartment?”
“She was going to lose custody because her housing situation was unstable.”
“From our money.”
“I was helping my son.”
“Secretly.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“You don't understand.”
“No. I understand perfectly.”
I walked to the coffee table and picked up my phone.
“You didn't trust me enough to tell me you had a child. But apparently you trusted me enough to unknowingly finance the secret.”
Vanessa looked uncomfortable.
Then she said, “There is something else.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“Stop.”
Margaret noticed.
“So there is more.”
Vanessa reached into her purse.
She removed her phone.
“I didn't come here because of the apartment.”
Daniel stood.
“Vanessa.”
She backed away.
“Don't.”
For the first time, I saw fear in her face.
Real fear.
Not romantic drama.
Fear.
“What happened?” I asked.
Vanessa unlocked her phone and handed it to me.
A series of messages filled the screen.
Unknown number.
You have been paid enough.
Keep the boy away from the Bennetts.
Then another.
If Robert Bennett learns the truth before Christmas, you'll regret it.
I looked at Margaret.
Her face had changed.
“Robert?”
Vanessa nodded.
“I thought Daniel sent them.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“I didn't.”
“Then who did?”
Nobody answered.
I scrolled farther.
There was a photograph.
Ethan leaving school.
Taken from across the street.
My anger momentarily disappeared beneath something colder.
“Have you called the police?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Daniel told me not to.”
Every head turned toward him.
“I thought it was Tyler trying to scare her.”
“You thought someone photographed your son outside school,” Robert said from behind us, “and your solution was silence?”
We hadn't heard him return.
Ethan was no longer with him.
“I put the boy in the kitchen with Mrs. Alvarez,” Robert said.
Then he looked at Daniel.
“You and I are going to have a serious conversation.”
Daniel stood.
“Dad, I can explain.”
Robert's laugh was quiet.
“No, you can't.”
Then Margaret took Vanessa's phone.
She enlarged the photograph.
Her fingers suddenly stopped.
“What?” I asked.
Margaret stared at the background.
A black SUV was reflected in the school window.
Nothing unusual.
Until she zoomed closer.
There was a small gold emblem on the door.
Margaret went pale.
Robert saw it too.
His expression hardened.
I looked between them.
“You recognize that car.”
Neither answered.
“Margaret.”
She sat down slowly.
“That vehicle belongs to Bennett Holdings.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Robert took the phone.
“Company security fleet.”
My heartbeat quickened.
Someone inside the Bennett family business had been watching Ethan.
“Why would your company care about Daniel's child?”
Robert looked toward his son.
Then toward me.
And suddenly I understood that the affair I thought I had discovered at the mall was only the first layer.
Robert spoke carefully.
“Because if Ethan is Daniel's biological son, he may have rights to something Daniel apparently hasn't told either of you about.”
Daniel stared at his father.
“What are you talking about?”
Robert's face became unreadable.
“My father's trust.”
Margaret whispered, “Robert…”
But he continued.
“Control of Bennett Holdings doesn't automatically pass to Daniel.”
I looked at him.
“Then who gets it?”
Robert's eyes moved toward the kitchen.
Toward Ethan.
“The oldest verified male descendant of my father receives the controlling family shares when I turn sixty-five.”
Daniel's face went white.
Robert's sixty-fifth birthday was Christmas Eve.
May you like
Nine days away.
And suddenly someone had a very powerful reason to make sure Ethan Bennett never became part of the family.
