Chapter 2 — The Second Receipt Revealed a Secret None Expected
Chapter 2 — The Second Receipt Revealed a Secret None Expected
Jason stood over the table, his face suddenly pale.
“Give it to me, Melissa.”
She didn’t move.
Instead, she looked at him with an expression I had never seen on her before.
Not anger.
Not jealousy.
Disappointment.
The kind that came after anger had already burned itself out.
“You’re really going to pretend you don’t know what that is?”
Jason swallowed.
“I know exactly what it is.”
Lauren suddenly stood.
“Can everyone just calm down?”
Melissa turned toward her.
“Calm down?”
Lauren’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“You’re standing in my friend’s backyard after spending a night in a hotel with my husband, and you’re telling me to calm down?”
Lauren’s eyes dropped.
I watched her carefully.
She wasn’t denying it.
That was the first thing that really hurt.
Not the receipt.
Not Jason.
Not even the hotel room.
The silence.
The fact that my wife had been caught and her first instinct wasn’t to tell me the truth.
It was to calculate what I already knew.
I looked at the second piece of paper.
“What does the note say?”
Melissa hesitated.
Then she placed it on the table.
I leaned forward.
The handwriting was messy, almost rushed.
Ask Daniel about the blue envelope.
I stared at the words.
My stomach tightened.
“What blue envelope?”
Lauren looked at Jason.
Jason looked at Lauren.
That was enough.
I stood.
“Okay.”
Lauren’s eyes widened.
“Daniel—”
“No.”
I held up my hand.
“Don’t explain yet.”
She stopped.
I looked at Jason.
“You knew about an envelope?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why did you stand up when you saw the note?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
Jason rubbed his forehead.
“Because I knew where that envelope came from.”
Melissa’s expression changed.
“Jason.”
He closed his eyes.
“I didn’t want this to come out like this.”
I laughed quietly.
“Apparently nobody did.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Jason finally sat down.
“The envelope belonged to your father.”
I froze.
“My father?”
My father had been dead for almost eight years.
At least, that’s what I’d always believed.
Jason nodded.
“He gave it to me six months ago.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“He told me not to open it.”
“Then why do you have it?”
Jason looked toward Lauren.
“She asked me to get it.”
Lauren immediately shook her head.
“No. That’s not what happened.”
Melissa stepped closer.
“So now we’re lying again?”
Lauren’s eyes filled with frustration.
“I didn’t know what was inside it.”
“You knew enough to ask Jason for it.”
Lauren looked at me.
“Daniel, please.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“Why?”
She whispered,
“Because I thought it could save our marriage.”
That sentence made no sense.
“How?”
She looked down.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
“From my father?”
She nodded.
“He wrote it before he died.”
I felt something cold move through my chest.
“My father never wrote me a letter.”
Lauren’s voice became softer.
“That’s because it wasn’t addressed to you.”
I looked at Jason.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Melissa picked up the receipt again.
“And Room 614?”
Lauren closed her eyes.
“That wasn’t an affair.”
Melissa laughed bitterly.
“Then what was it?”
Lauren looked at me.
“We went there to meet someone.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
Then said,
“Your father’s lawyer.”
I frowned.
“My father didn’t have a lawyer.”
“He did.”
“Lauren, stop.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because he specifically told me not to.”
I stared at her.
“Who?”
She took a shaky breath.
“Your father.”
The backyard suddenly felt too small.
My father’s name had become something I couldn’t escape.
A dead man was appearing in conversations he shouldn’t have been part of.
Letters.
Envelopes.
Hotel rooms.
And now a lawyer nobody had ever mentioned.
I turned toward Jason.
“Why were you there?”
He finally looked at me.
“I wasn’t supposed to be.”
“What does that mean?”
“I followed Lauren.”
Lauren snapped her head toward him.
“You followed me?”
“I didn’t trust you.”
“Then why did you go inside?”
Jason didn’t answer.
Melissa stepped between them.
“Because he knew someone else was coming.”
I looked at her.
“How do you know?”
She reached into her purse.
“I checked the hotel records.”
She pulled out her phone and placed it on the table.
“I wasn’t only looking at the receipt.”
She swiped through several photographs.
Then she turned the screen toward me.
The first picture showed the hotel entrance.
The second showed Lauren walking inside.
The third showed Jason entering five minutes later.
But the fourth photograph made my blood run cold.
A man in a dark jacket stood outside Room 614.
His face was partially turned away.
But I recognized the watch on his wrist.
My father had owned that watch.
I had seen it every day when I was a kid.
I looked closer.
“No.”
Melissa whispered,
“That was taken Friday night.”
I shook my head.
“My father is dead.”
Nobody responded.
Then Lauren reached for my arm.
I stepped away.
“Don’t.”
Her hand fell.
“Daniel…”
I looked at the photograph again.
There was something else.
The man wasn’t alone.
A woman stood beside him.
Her face was hidden by the hallway light.
But she was holding a blue envelope.
I zoomed in.
The handwriting on the envelope was unmistakable.
My name.
DANIEL.
I looked at Lauren.
“You said the letter was for someone else.”
She started crying.
“I lied.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“Why?”
“Because I was scared.”
“Of what?”
She wiped her cheek.
“Of what would happen if you found out your father might still be alive.”
Nobody moved.
Jason looked at the ground.
Melissa stared at Lauren.
And I could barely breathe.
Then my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
Stop asking about Room 614.
I read it twice.
Another message arrived immediately.
The hotel wasn’t where your father disappeared.
Then a final message.
It was where he came back.
I looked up.
“Who sent this?”
No one answered.
Then I noticed Lauren staring at my phone.
And the expression on her face told me she recognized the number.
“Lauren.”
She said nothing.
“Do you know who this is?”
Her lips trembled.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
She looked at me.
Then whispered the name of the one person I never expected to hear.
“Your father.”