Chapter 5: Rachel Was Wearing My Ring Before Daniel Ever Met Me
Chapter 5: Rachel Was Wearing My Ring Before Daniel Ever Met Me
I stared at the photograph.
Rachel was wearing the ring.
My ring.
Or at least, a ring identical to mine.
Daniel stood beside her, looking younger than he did now.
The date in the corner was unmistakable.
Eight months before our wedding.
I couldn’t breathe.
Madison stepped closer.
“Is that Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is she wearing your ring?”
I looked at Daniel through the phone.
“Answer me.”
He didn’t.
“Daniel!”
Finally, his voice came through.
“It isn’t what you think.”
I laughed.
“That’s what everyone says when it is exactly what I think.”
“Listen to me.”
“No. You listen to me.”
I held the photograph up as if he could see it.
“You told me you never had anything with Rachel.”
“I never said that.”
“You let me believe it.”
“Yes.”
“So you lied.”
“Yes.”
The honesty of his answer stunned me.
“Why?”
“Because Rachel was never my girlfriend.”
I frowned.
“Then why was she wearing the ring?”
“Because I gave it to her.”
My heart sank.
“Why?”
“Because I needed her to pretend to be my wife.”
I couldn’t process the words.
“What?”
“Not publicly. Not legally. It was part of an investigation.”
“An investigation into what?”
“The person who was stealing information from your company.”
I looked at Madison.
She whispered, “Keep going.”
I turned back to the phone.
“You said this started two years ago.”
“It started before that.”
“How long?”
“Almost five years.”
I felt dizzy.
Five years.
That meant Daniel had been investigating something before we even met.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were connected to it.”
“How?”
“Your father.”
I froze.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“What does my father have to do with Rachel?”
“Nothing directly.”
“Then explain.”
Daniel took a long breath.
“Your father discovered that someone was using your family’s business accounts to move confidential information.”
I remembered the company.
My father had built it from almost nothing.
After he retired, I became involved in the business.
Daniel joined later.
Michael had been there even longer.
“So someone was stealing from my father?”
“Not money.”
“Then what?”
“Information.”
“What kind?”
“Client lists. Contracts. Pricing. Acquisition plans.”
I stared at the photograph again.
“And Rachel?”
“She worked for the company that was receiving the information.”
My stomach tightened.
“You mean she was involved?”
“Not willingly.”
“What?”
“She was undercover.”
I looked at Madison.
“Undercover?”
Daniel continued.
“She was investigating the same people I was.”
“So you two worked together.”
“Yes.”
“For years?”
“Yes.”
“Why did she wear the ring?”
“Because we needed someone to believe we were married.”
“Who?”
Daniel paused.
“The person who hired her.”
I felt a chill.
“Who hired her?”
“We don’t know.”
“Daniel, stop saying you don’t know.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
He went silent.
Then he said:
“We know the person has access to your company’s internal systems.”
I thought about the stranger.
The messages.
My trainer.
The missing ring.
“And they know about me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the easiest way to get to me.”
I felt my anger rise.
“So this whole time, I was bait?”
“No.”
“You used my marriage as bait.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You made me think you were cheating.”
“I needed the person watching us to believe you were angry enough to act alone.”
“And you knew I would follow you.”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t believe it.
“So you planned everything.”
“Not everything.”
“What didn’t you plan?”
“The ring being stolen.”
I looked at the empty box.
“Then what was supposed to happen?”
“I wanted them to think your ring contained nothing.”
“But it did.”
“Yes.”
“Why put the chip inside my ring?”
“Because I knew they’d eventually search our house.”
“Why my ring?”
“Because nobody searches something they assume is sentimental.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You really thought of everything.”
“No.”
His voice became quiet.
“I didn’t think you’d get hurt.”
That stopped me.
For the first time, I heard genuine fear in his voice.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“There was another reason I removed my ring.”
I waited.
“It wasn’t only about the investigation.”
“What was it?”
“Three weeks ago, I received a message.”
“From whom?”
“Your trainer.”
My stomach dropped.
“My trainer?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me you were in danger.”
I shook my head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“He said someone had been using your gym visits to monitor you.”
I thought about the man in the gray jacket.
“So my trainer knew?”
“He suspected.”
“Then why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he was afraid.”
“Afraid of who?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Then I heard Rachel say something in the background.
“Daniel, tell her about the video.”
My heart stopped.
“What video?”
Daniel sighed.
“There is a recording.”
“Of what?”
“Your father.”
I stared at the phone.
“My father?”
“He made it shortly before he died.”
I couldn’t speak.
“What does it show?”
“It shows him meeting someone.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why is it important?”
“Because the person in the recording is wearing the same ring.”
I looked at the duplicate ring sitting in my palm.
“D.R.?”
“No.”
“Then whose initials?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your father’s.”
I looked down.
The engraving suddenly seemed different.
I rubbed the inside of the ring with my thumb.
The letters were faint.
D.R.
My father’s initials were D.R.
I had never noticed because I’d never looked closely.
“So this was his?”
“Yes.”
“Why did Rachel have it?”
“She didn’t.”
I looked at the photograph.
“Then what am I looking at?”
Daniel’s voice became almost a whisper.
“A copy.”
I stared at the picture.
“Someone made a copy of my father’s ring.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make us believe your father was involved.”
My head was spinning.
“Wasn’t he?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because your father left something behind.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
“Where is it?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“Daniel.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Who does?”
A long silence followed.
Then he said:
“Your trainer.”
I felt a chill run through me.
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed.
A new message.
Unknown number.
There was a video attached.
The message contained only four words:
Ask him about your father.
I pressed play.
The screen showed my father sitting in an office.
He looked tired.
Frightened.
And behind him stood someone I recognized immediately.
Michael.
My father’s former business partner.
I watched in horror as my father placed a small box on the desk.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this,” he said, “Daniel has finally told you the truth.”
The video ended.
I stared at the black screen.
Daniel was still on the phone.
“Who recorded that?”
He whispered:
“Your father.”
“And who sent it to me?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Then another message appeared.
You have ten minutes to bring the second ring to the gym.
Below it was an address.
My gym.
And one final sentence:
Come alone, or Daniel dies.
