Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO THOUGHT I WAS GONE
Daniel called seventeen times that afternoon.
I answered none of them.
Then Vanessa called.
I almost ignored her too.
But curiosity won.
“Hello?”
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“It’s Vanessa.”
“I know.”
“I got your number from Daniel’s phone.”
I waited.
“I need to talk to you.”
“You already told me enough.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“I really didn’t.”
That got my attention.
“What did Daniel tell you about me?”
“That you separated almost two years ago.”
I closed my eyes.
“He said you were living together temporarily because of finances and family complications.”
“We sleep in the same bed.”
Silence.
“He told me you had separate bedrooms.”
“We had breakfast together yesterday.”
Vanessa breathed out slowly.
“He told me you barely spoke.”
“He kissed me before leaving for his supposed hospital shift.”
Another silence.
Then Vanessa said something unexpected.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t answer.
I wasn’t ready to forgive her.
But I was beginning to understand that Daniel had created different realities for both of us.
“How long?”
“Eighteen months.”
My stomach turned.
Longer than the lease.
“How did you meet?”
“At a hospital fundraiser.”
Of course.
I had organized dozens of those.
“Which one?”
“The pediatric wing fundraiser last February.”
I remembered it.
I had been there.
Then I remembered something else.
Daniel had disappeared for almost an hour that night.
He told me a surgeon needed to discuss an emergency case.
“Did you know I was there?”
“No.”
“Did you see me?”
“I don’t think so.”
I walked toward the window.
“Why was his family traveling with you?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Because they thought this trip was supposed to be the beginning of our life together.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel told them he was filing the final divorce papers while we were in Rome.”
There was that imaginary divorce again.
“Richard believed him?”
“Yes.”
“Lauren?”
“Yes.”
“His children?”
“He told them you knew.”
That hurt differently.
Not because the children had betrayed me.
Because Daniel had used them as props inside his lie.
“Did he tell you he was proposing?”
Vanessa went silent.
That answered my question.
“He did.”
“I found the jeweler appointment.”
“I didn’t know about that.”
For the first time, Vanessa sounded genuinely stunned.
Then she said quietly,
“I’m not going to Rome.”
I sat down.
“What happened?”
“We argued after you left.”
“About me?”
“About everything.”
She paused.
“Daniel kept saying he could fix it.”
I almost smiled.
That was Daniel.
Every disaster was a problem he believed intelligence could solve.
“He said you would calm down.”
“Did he?”
“He said you’d been unhappy for years anyway.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Interesting.”
“Rachel, there’s something else.”
My body went still.
“What?”
“Daniel told me you were trying to take money from him.”
I looked toward his office.
“What money?”
“He said that was why he had been moving assets.”
There it was.
My heart started pounding.
“Moving them where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Vanessa.”
“I swear.”
She sounded frightened now.
“He said his attorney told him to protect certain accounts before the divorce.”
“Which attorney?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he ever mention a trust?”
“No.”
“Property?”
“He mentioned an investment company.”
“What company?”
She hesitated.
“Bennett Meridian Holdings.”
I wrote it down.
“Anything else?”
“There was a safe.”
I stopped writing.
“Where?”
“The apartment.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never seen it opened?”
“Once.”
“And?”
“Daniel had documents.”
“What kind?”
“I couldn’t see.”
Then Vanessa added,
“But Richard was there.”
My father-in-law.
Suddenly this was no longer just about Daniel.
“Richard knew about the apartment?”
“Yes.”
That hurt more than I expected.
Vanessa continued.
“He visited several times.”
“Did Lauren?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The entire family had walked into Daniel’s second home.
They had sat on his furniture.
Spoken to Vanessa.
Shared meals.
Planned vacations.
And then looked me in the face at Christmas.
At Thanksgiving.
At birthdays.
They hadn’t simply known about an affair.
They had participated in the architecture of it.
Before hanging up, Vanessa said one more thing.
“Rachel?”
“Yes?”
“I know you have no reason to believe me.”
“You’re right.”
“But I think Daniel is afraid of you finding something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because when you walked away at the airport, he didn’t ask me to stay.”
She paused.
May you like
“He asked Richard whether you had access to the investment accounts.”
That changed everything.
