[CHAPTER 6]
By noon, I had stopped thinking of Evelyn as a cruel mother-in-law.
Cruel mother-in-law sounded almost ordinary.
A woman who criticized cooking.
A woman who crossed boundaries.
A woman who made holidays miserable.
Evelyn was something else.
She had collected my private information.
Photographed me.
Planted evidence.
Prepared financial accounts using my maiden name.
And apparently decided more than a year ago that I “noticed too much.”
The question was what I had noticed.
Because I couldn’t remember noticing anything important.
Detective Mills asked me to list every argument I had ever had with Evelyn.
It took two pages.
Most were petty.
Keys to our house.
Money.
Daniel sharing personal information.
Evelyn opening our mail.
Her insisting on joining our vacation.
Her moving furniture in our living room while we were at work.
Then I remembered something.
“Wait.”
Mills looked up.
“What?”
“Last Christmas.”
Melissa leaned forward.
“What happened?”
“Your mother was in Daniel’s office.”
“So?”
“She said she was looking for wrapping paper.”
Melissa frowned.
“There’s no wrapping paper in Daniel’s office.”
“I know.”
I hadn’t thought much of it then.
I had walked in and found Evelyn holding a folder.
When she saw me, she dropped it.
The folder contained paperwork from Robert’s company.
Daniel sometimes brought financial reports home.
I had joked that Evelyn looked guilty.
She didn’t laugh.
Two days later, she told Daniel I had been snooping through his office.
Of course he believed her enough to ask me about it.
We fought.
I felt stupid now.
Every incident had been turned around on me before I could question her.
Mills wrote quickly.
“What was on those papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could you recognize them?”
“Maybe.”
She called Daniel.
He searched his home office and found the Christmas folder.
Then he sent photographs.
One page showed a list of shell companies.
Another showed internal authorization codes.
My blood ran cold when I saw one name.
Lakeview Holdings.
The same account Victor mentioned in the recording.
“I saw that name,” I whispered.
Melissa looked at me.
“When?”
“Last Christmas.”
That was it.
Evelyn had seen me looking at the folder.
Maybe I hadn’t understood what I was seeing.
But she couldn’t know that.
From that day on, she had watched me.
Mills nodded.
“That gives us motive for targeting you.”
My phone rang again.
This time it was Robert.
I hesitated before answering.
“Hello?”
His voice sounded rough.
“I need to apologize.”
“You don’t have to do this right now.”
“Yes, I do.”
I said nothing.
He continued.
“I watched my wife mistreat you for years.”
I closed my eyes.
“I told myself Daniel would handle it. Then I told myself you were both adults. Then I told myself interfering would make things worse.”
His voice cracked.
“The truth is, I was afraid of fighting with her.”
That honesty hurt.
Because it explained so much.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at the skyline outside Melissa’s window.
“Thank you.”
“I don’t expect forgiveness.”
I believed him.
That mattered.
Then his tone changed.
“There’s something you need to know.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The police found the five hundred dollars.”
“Where?”
“In your coat pocket.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“My coat?”
“The gray one hanging downstairs.”
I hadn’t worn that coat in two weeks.
Evelyn had planted it there.
Just as she said on the recording.
Robert continued.
“They photographed everything before removing it.”
“Good.”
“There was also a key.”
“What kind of key?”
“A safety-deposit-box key.”
I looked at Detective Mills.
She heard.
“Do they know where?”
“Not yet.”
Mills took notes.
Then Robert said, “Daniel is coming to see you.”
“No.”
Silence.
“I didn’t ask him to.”
“Tell him not to.”
“He already left.”
Anger surged through me.
“Of course he did.”
Same Daniel.
Still deciding what needed to happen before asking what I wanted.
I ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, someone knocked.
Melissa checked the camera.
“It’s him.”
I wanted to tell her not to open the door.
Instead, I said, “Five minutes.”
Daniel entered looking terrible.
Same clothes.
Unshaven.
Red eyes.
He stopped several feet away.
“I’m not here to ask you to come home.”
“Good.”
“I’m not here to defend Mom.”
“Better.”
He swallowed.
“I brought something.”
He placed an envelope on the table.
Divorce papers.
Not signed.
Just printed forms.
I stared at them.
Daniel’s voice shook.
“If that’s what you want, I won’t fight you.”
I looked at him.
For the first time in years, he wasn’t asking me to make him feel better.
“I love you,” he said. “But I finally understand that loving you while repeatedly choosing her comfort over your safety isn’t enough.”
My eyes burned.
He continued.
“I don’t know if I can fix what I did.”
“You can’t.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
That surprised me.
Then he pulled out another document.
“I also removed Mom from everything connected to us.”
“What?”
“Emergency contact. Access to our house. Account permissions. Company authority.”
He looked ashamed.
“Things I should have done years ago.”
Melissa quietly left the room.
Daniel and I stood facing each other.
“I need space,” I said.
“You have it.”
“No calls unless it’s about the investigation.”
“Okay.”
“No showing up.”
“Okay.”
“No asking Melissa to talk to me for you.”
“Okay.”
I searched his face.
“Can you actually respect that?”
“Yes.”
I wanted to believe him.
I didn’t yet.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“What?”
“It’s Dad.”
He answered.
Robert was shouting.
Not words at first.
Just panic.
Then we heard him clearly.
“Daniel, someone got into the house.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
May you like
“What happened?”
“The study is on fire.”
