Chapter 12 - HE TRIED TO TAKE ME DOWN WITH HIM
I realized then that Daniel’s betrayal had never been only romantic.
He had prepared exits everywhere.
From me.
From his company.
From responsibility.
And if the walls ever closed in, he had built a path that ran directly through my name.
Rachel told me not to call him.
I called anyway.
He answered immediately.
“Finally.”
“You put my name on an account.”
Silence.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop lying.”
“Careful, Jennifer.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re warning me?”
“I’m telling you that your signature is on paperwork.”
My chest tightened.
“You forged it.”
“Can you prove that?”
There it was.
The real Daniel.
Cold.
Calculating.
He had expected me to discover the affair eventually.
Maybe even the money.
But he had prepared for that too.
“If I go down,” he said quietly, “you could go down with me.”
I closed my eyes.
Lily slept in the next room.
“You’d do that to your daughter’s mother?”
He laughed bitterly.
“You’re the one who declared war.”
“No.”
My voice shook once.
“You declared war when you used me as your shield.”
I hung up.
The forensic handwriting examiner needed only four days.
My signature was forged.
Not only once.
Six times.
Daniel had opened accounts, approved transfers, and altered company paperwork using my name.
Then we found the security footage.
One of the forms had been notarized at a bank branch.
Daniel appeared on camera.
I did not.
The case against me disappeared.
The case against him grew.
His business partners sued.
Investigators became involved.
Daniel was placed on leave.
His company access was suspended.
Then his parents learned the financial part.
His father came to my house alone.
He looked ten years older.
“I need to ask you something.”
I let him in.
He sat at my kitchen table.
“Did Daniel steal from us too?”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He rubbed his face.
“Three years ago, he convinced me to move part of our retirement savings into an investment fund.”
My stomach turned.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
I called Marcus.
Within hours, we had an answer.
The investment fund existed.
But Daniel had withdrawn nearly half the money.
His father cried.
Quietly.
That was harder to watch than Daniel’s rage.
“I raised him,” he whispered.
“I taught him better.”
I didn’t know what to say.
He looked toward Lily’s room.
“Will you ever let us see her?”
That question broke something in me.
Margaret and Robert had defended Daniel for years.
They had praised him.
Excused him.
But they had not forged my signature.
They had not stolen Lily’s money.
“I’m not taking Lily away from people who love her.”
Robert lowered his head.
“Thank you.”
Then he pulled an envelope from his coat.
“I found this in Daniel’s old desk.”
“What is it?”
“Something he probably never wanted you to see.”
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Dated two years earlier.
From Chloe.
The first line read:
Daniel, I can’t keep doing this while you’re married to Jennifer.
Two years.
Not months.
Years.
I kept reading.
May you like
Then I reached the last paragraph.
And discovered the affair had started before Lily was ever conceived.
