Chapter 4: Daniel Finally Revealed the Truth About His First Wife
Chapter 4: Daniel Finally Revealed the Truth About His First Wife
I stared at Daniel.
“Your first wife?”
He didn’t answer.
That silence told me more than words ever could.
The dining room suddenly felt unfamiliar. The same table where we had eaten countless dinners. The same framed photographs on the bookshelf. The same walls surrounding the life I thought I understood.
And suddenly, I wondered how much of that life had been built on things Daniel had never told me.
“Daniel,” I said quietly. “You were married before?”
“Yes.”
The answer came so softly that it almost hurt more.
I felt my throat tighten.
“How long?”
“Six years.”
“And you never thought I deserved to know?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
He looked away.
“I don’t know.”
I laughed once, but there was nothing funny about it.
“You’ve been married to me for seven years.”
“I know.”
“And somehow your first marriage never came up?”
“It wasn’t that simple.”
Mark suddenly interrupted.
“It wasn’t just a marriage.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“Stop.”
Mark raised his hands.
“You should tell her.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“You don’t get to decide what she knows.”
The compliance officer looked between them.
“Who was she?”
Daniel didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said:
“Her name was Claire.”
The name seemed to hang in the room.
I waited.
Daniel continued.
“She disappeared twelve years ago.”
I frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Is she dead?”
“We don’t know.”
My stomach dropped.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Daniel rubbed his jaw.
“Claire left one night. She took almost nothing with her. Her phone was found near the river. Her car was abandoned two miles away.”
“And you never told the police?”
“I did.”
“Then why isn’t there a missing-person case?”
“There was.”
The compliance officer suddenly looked at him.
“Daniel, is Claire the reason Ethan Vale was declared dead?”
Daniel’s head snapped toward her.
“How do you know that name?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“Because Ethan Vale was Claire’s business partner.”
I stared at Daniel.
“You knew him?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Too well.”
Mark stepped toward the table.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Daniel shot him a warning look.
Mark ignored it.
“Claire wasn’t just Daniel’s wife.”
He looked at me.
“She was involved in the company.”
I felt dizzy.
“What company?”
“The same company Daniel works for now.”
I turned to Daniel.
“You told me you started there after your divorce.”
“I did.”
“Then why was your wife involved?”
“She helped build the company.”
I stared at him.
None of this made sense.
Then the compliance officer opened another file on the USB.
“There’s something else.”
A document appeared on the screen.
It was dated eleven years ago.
At the top was Claire’s signature.
Below it was a list of names.
Mark.
Ethan Vale.
And Daniel.
My heart began pounding.
“What is that?”
The compliance officer read the heading.
“Internal investigation.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
I looked at him.
“An investigation into what?”
“Financial fraud.”
The answer came from Mark.
Daniel opened his eyes.
“Mark.”
But it was too late.
Mark continued.
“Claire discovered money was being moved out of the company.”
“By whom?”
Mark looked at Daniel.
“She thought it was Ethan.”
“And was it?”
“We never found out.”
I stared at the document.
“Then what happened to Claire?”
Daniel’s voice became almost a whisper.
“The night she disappeared, she told me she had proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That someone inside the company had been stealing money for years.”
I looked at the USB.
“And you think that has something to do with me?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
The compliance officer suddenly leaned closer to the screen.
“Wait.”
She enlarged a scanned signature.
“Look at this.”
I stepped closer.
It was my signature.
Not similar.
Not close.
Mine.
My stomach twisted.
“I didn’t sign that.”
Daniel stared at the document.
“That’s impossible.”
The compliance officer opened another file.
Then another.
Each one contained my personal information.
My signature.
My identification details.
My banking information.
But the dates were from years before I had even met Daniel.
“This can’t be me,” I whispered.
The compliance officer looked at me.
“It isn’t.”
“Then who forged it?”
Nobody answered.
The man with the briefcase suddenly spoke.
“There’s metadata.”
Everyone turned.
He rotated the laptop toward us.
“These files were modified recently.”
“How recently?”
“Three days ago.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Three days?”
“Yes.”
“Then someone accessed the old investigation files three days ago.”
The man nodded.
“From a company server.”
Mark’s face changed.
“That’s when I received my first instruction.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What instruction?”
“To prepare for tonight.”
I stared at Mark.
“You knew about dinner?”
“I knew there would be a dinner.”
“Why?”
“Because I was told Daniel would eventually expose me.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“And what were you supposed to do?”
Mark swallowed.
“Make you look guilty.”
Silence.
I felt like the floor had disappeared beneath me.
Mark continued.
“They wanted the USB in your purse. They wanted your fingerprints on it. They wanted the shell account connected to your identity.”
“But why?”
Mark looked at Daniel.
“Because once everything surfaced, your wife would take the blame.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Who gave you the instructions?”
Mark hesitated.
Then he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“I have the messages.”
He opened a conversation.
There were dozens of encrypted messages.
The sender had no name.
Only a photograph.
Daniel leaned closer.
I couldn’t see it clearly.
Then Mark turned the phone toward me.
The photo showed a woman standing outside an apartment building.
Dark hair.
Gray coat.
Her face was partially hidden.
But I recognized her.
My breath caught.
Daniel looked at me.
“You know her?”
I couldn’t speak.
Because I had seen that woman before.
Not in a photograph.
Not on television.
In person.
Three weeks earlier.
She had been standing across the street from our house.
Watching me.
I finally whispered:
“That’s Claire.”
Daniel went completely still.
The compliance officer grabbed the phone.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
I remembered that day.
The woman had looked directly at me.
Then she had smiled.
At the time, I thought she was a stranger.
Now I realized something much worse.
She hadn’t been watching Daniel.
She had been watching me.
Daniel took the phone from Mark.
His hands were trembling.
Then another message arrived.
Everyone watched the screen.
UNKNOWN:
You finally found her.
A second message appeared.
Now ask your wife what Claire whispered to her three weeks ago.
Daniel slowly turned toward me.
I couldn’t move.
Because there was one thing I had never told him.
Three weeks ago, that woman really had approached me.
And before she walked away, she had whispered four words in my ear.
Four words I had tried desperately to forget.
“Daniel killed Ethan Vale.”
