Chapter 2
For several seconds, I couldn’t understand what Daniel had said.
A private investigator.
The phrase belonged in crime shows.
Divorce cases.
Corporate scandals.
Not my backyard.
Not beside my mother-in-law while my terrified daughter stood behind me.
“You hired him?”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“That isn’t exactly what happened.”
I stepped closer.
“That means yes.”
“Mom found him.”
I laughed once.
“You’re letting your mother investigate your wife?”
“It was supposed to be temporary.”
“For what?”
“To document things.”
“What things?”
He didn’t answer.
Sophie tugged my sleeve.
“Mommy, why is Grandma taking pictures?”
My heart broke.
I crouched.
“Go into your room and close the door, okay?”
“But—”
“I’m coming right behind you.”
She looked at Daniel.
He tried to smile.
She moved closer to me instead.
Daniel noticed.
Something flickered across his face.
Pain.
Maybe shame.
Not enough.
I walked Sophie to her room, gave her my headphones, and turned on one of her favorite cartoons.
“Stay here.”
“Are you leaving?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
When I returned to the bedroom, Daniel was looking out the window.
Linda and the man were gone.
“You need to tell me everything.”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Mom thinks you’re planning to divorce me.”
“Why?”
“She said you’ve been putting money away.”
I stared at him.
“I put fifty dollars from every paycheck into an emergency savings account.”
“Without telling me.”
“Because every time we have money left, you put it into your business.”
“That business is our future.”
“This house is our present.”
He looked away.
“What did the investigator do?”
“Mostly followed you.”
My skin crawled.
“Mostly?”
“He took pictures.”
“Of what?”
“You leaving work.”
“Going where?”
“Coffee shops. Grocery stores. Sophie’s school.”
“That sounds scandalous.”
He winced.
“Rachel.”
“Did he follow Sophie?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Daniel hesitated.
My voice rose.
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t think so.”
I walked toward him so quickly he backed away.
“You don’t think so?”
“I never wanted Sophie involved.”
“She already is involved.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I pointed downstairs.
“Your mother pulled her hair today.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“You said that.”
“And you still haven’t gone upstairs to check on her.”
That landed.
He looked toward the hall.
Then started walking.
I stepped in front of him.
“No.”
“What?”
“You don’t get to suddenly perform fatherhood because I pointed out that you forgot.”
His face flushed.
“That’s unfair.”
“Then tell me something that makes today fair.”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
His phone buzzed again.
This time I saw the name.
MOM.
I held out my hand.
“Answer it.”
“Not now.”
“Answer it on speaker.”
“Rachel.”
“Do it.”
He stared at me.
Then answered.
“Mom.”
Linda was crying immediately.
“Daniel, she attacked me.”
I folded my arms.
Daniel looked at me.
“Mom, what happened with Sophie?”
Silence.
Then Linda sniffed.
“She had a tantrum.”
“What kind of tantrum?”
“She threw dinner.”
“I dropped it!” Sophie yelled from her bedroom.
Linda must have heard.
“That child needs consequences.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
I watched carefully.
“Did you grab her hair?”
Linda hesitated.
“I tried to stop her from running away.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I touched her hair.”
“Did you pull it?”
“Daniel, after everything I have done for you—”
“Mom.”
“She was disrespectful!”
I saw Daniel close his eyes.
It was the first moment that day when something real appeared on his face.
Not defensiveness.
Not frustration.
Recognition.
“Why was Rachel told about the investigator?”
Linda stopped crying.
“What?”
“You mentioned the attorney.”
“I was angry.”
“Why did you bring that up?”
“Because your wife thinks she controls everyone.”
I whispered, “Ask her why the investigator was outside.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Why were you outside our house with Mark?”
Linda paused.
Then she said, “Because Rachel is hiding something.”
I stared at Daniel.
“What am I hiding?” I asked loudly.
Linda heard me.
“You know exactly what.”
“No, Linda. Tell me.”
“Ask your husband where you were Tuesday night.”
I looked at Daniel.
He looked back.
“Tuesday?” I said.
Then I remembered.
“My sister’s apartment.”
Linda laughed.
“At eleven-thirty?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
“My sister called because her kitchen pipe burst.”
“Mark saw you hugging a man outside.”
I almost smiled.
“You mean my sister’s landlord?”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
Linda continued.
“You were in that building for nearly three hours.”
“Because water was pouring through her ceiling.”
“Convenient.”
I grabbed my phone.
“Do you want me to call Megan right now?”
Linda became quiet.
“Or her landlord?” I continued. “Or the emergency plumber? I paid his deposit on my credit card because Megan’s card was declined. Would you like the receipt?”
Daniel sat on the edge of the bed.
His face was changing.
Slowly.
The story his mother had created was beginning to crack.
But I wasn’t relieved.
I was furious.
“Daniel,” I said, “how many accusations like this did she give the attorney?”
He stared ahead.
“Several.”
“What else?”
“Mom said you met someone after work.”
“My boss?”
“She didn’t know.”
“What did the investigator say?”
“He identified him as your regional manager.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And that didn’t make you stop?”
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know.”
I took his phone.
He didn’t stop me this time.
“Passcode?”
He hesitated.
“0417.”
I unlocked it.
There were hundreds of messages from Linda.
I searched my name.
My stomach twisted.
She sleeps too late on weekends.
Photograph the laundry.
Sophie told me Rachel forgot to pack a snack.
She probably has another man.
You need to protect yourself before she takes the house.
You should document every time she comes home late.
There were pictures.
Me carrying groceries.
Me leaving the dentist.
Me walking with a male coworker and two female coworkers.
Me sitting alone in my car outside the elementary school.
Then I found pictures of Sophie.
My blood ran cold.
Sophie walking toward the school bus.
Sophie at a playground.
Sophie leaving ballet.
I turned the screen toward Daniel.
“You said he didn’t follow her.”
Daniel stood.
“I never saw those.”
“They’re in your messages.”
“Mom sent hundreds. I didn’t open everything.”
“Your mother had a stranger photographing our daughter.”
He looked sick.
Then I saw something else.
A message from Daniel to Linda.
Stop sending pictures of Sophie. This is going too far.
Dated five days earlier.
I lifted the phone.
“You knew.”
He looked at me.
“You knew five days ago.”
“I told her to stop.”
“But you didn’t tell me.”
“I thought she had stopped.”
“You didn’t fire him.”
“He works for Mom.”
“You didn’t protect Sophie.”
“I made a mistake.”
“No.”
I felt suddenly calm.
A frightening calm.
“You made a choice.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Rachel.”
I stepped away.
“You chose to keep me uninformed because you were more afraid of upsetting your mother than protecting your wife and daughter.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Call her back.”
He looked confused.
“Tell her she cannot come near Sophie again.”
His face froze.
I waited.
There it was.
The hesitation.
Small.
But enough.
“Do it.”
“Rachel, permanently?”
“You just heard her admit she pulled our daughter’s hair.”
“She was wrong.”
“She locked Sophie in her room.”
Daniel stared at me.
“What?”
“You didn’t know that either?”
“No.”
“She wedged the door shut from outside.”
His face drained.
“She what?”
I removed the rubber wedge from my purse and tossed it onto the bed.
“Sophie showed me.”
Daniel picked it up.
“She said your mother uses this.”
He sat down.
“Why didn’t Sophie tell me?”
I looked at him.
“Maybe because your mother told her you would choose Grandma over her.”
He whispered, “No.”
“Yes.”
He stood suddenly.
“I’m going to Mom’s.”
“No.”
“I need to talk to her.”
“You can talk on the phone.”
“I need answers.”
“And I need you here.”
He looked torn.
For years, that expression had controlled me.
Whenever Linda demanded something, Daniel became a boy caught between two women.
I usually surrendered.
Not tonight.
“You leave this house to comfort your mother,” I said, “and you do not come back tonight.”
His eyes widened.
“You’re threatening me?”
“I’m setting a boundary.”
“Rachel—”
“Our daughter is upstairs terrified. Choose where you need to be.”
His phone rang again.
Not Linda.
Unknown number.
Daniel answered cautiously.
“Hello?”
His face changed.
“Yes.”
Pause.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Okay.”
He hung up.
“What?”
Daniel looked toward me.
“That was Mark.”
“The investigator?”
“He says he quit.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“He found something.”
“About me?”
Daniel shook his head.
“About Mom.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“He wants to meet us.”
“Us?”
“He said both of us.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“No.”
“Rachel—”
“I’m not leaving Sophie.”
“He said it’s important.”
“He can come here.”
Daniel called him back.
Ten minutes later, we sat downstairs while Sophie colored at the dining table beside me.
I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
The doorbell rang.
Daniel answered.
The man from the backyard stepped inside.
Mark Harris was perhaps fifty.
Gray hair.
Dark jacket.
He looked uncomfortable.
He placed a thick envelope on the table.
“I owe you an apology, Mrs. Walker.”
“For stalking me?”
“Yes.”
Daniel shifted.
Mark looked at him.
“And you need to understand that your mother did not hire me only to investigate your wife.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Mark opened the envelope.
He spread several photographs across the table.
Linda entering a bank.
Linda meeting a man in a parking lot.
Linda walking into a law office.
Then one picture made Daniel stop.
His mother was standing beside his business partner, Eric.
“What is this?”
Mark answered quietly.
“They’ve been meeting for six weeks.”
Daniel looked up.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Mark pulled out another sheet.
“But I know your mother paid me from an account connected to your company.”
Daniel’s chair scraped backward.
“That’s impossible.”
“I checked twice.”
I stared at him.
Daniel’s business had been losing money.
We had drained savings trying to keep it alive.
He kept telling me clients were slow.
Expenses were rising.
A major contract had collapsed.
Mark placed one final photograph on the table.
Linda was handing Eric an envelope.
On the back, Mark had written a date.
Three days before Daniel’s biggest client unexpectedly terminated its contract.
Daniel whispered, “What has she done?”
Mark looked directly at him.
“I think your wife was never the real target.”
The kitchen went silent.
May you like
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“I think your mother has been trying to destroy your marriage so nobody notices what she and your partner are doing to your company.”
