Chapter 7: The Message from the Other Woman
I did not respond that night.
I set the phone face-up on the kitchen counter and looked at it the way you look at something you are not ready to touch.
Then I went upstairs, changed out of the clothes I had worn to the dinner, and sat on the edge of the bed in the quiet.
Daniel came in forty minutes later.
He stood in the doorway.
"I'm going to sleep in the guest room," he said.
Not a question.
"Okay," I said.
He nodded.
Turned.
"Daniel."
He stopped.
"Does she have a name?" I asked.
"Or have you been protecting me from that too?"
A long pause.
"Claire," he said.
I nodded.
"Good night."
He closed the door.
I sat on the edge of the bed for another hour.
At some point I lay back without meaning to.
At some point I slept.
In the morning I called my sister, June, before I called Katherine Moss.
June arrived in forty minutes with coffee and no questions that I hadn't invited.
That was the thing about June.
She understood that sometimes a person needs to be sat with before they can be talked to.
We were on our second cup when I showed her the text.
She read it.
Set my phone down carefully.
"Do you want to know what she wants?" June asked.
"I don't know yet," I said honestly.
"She could be angry.
Looking for a fight."
"Maybe."
"Or she might know something you don't."
I wrapped both hands around my mug.
"That's what I keep thinking."
"Do you want me to stay while you call Katherine?"
"Yes," I said.
"Please."
I called Katherine Moss at nine fifteen.
She answered on the second ring, professional and warm, the kind of voice that says I have done this before and I will not flinch.
"Mrs.
Calloway," she said.
"Harold spoke very highly of you.
I've been expecting your call."
"I haven't made any decisions yet," I said.
"That's fine.
That's actually the best time to call me.
Before decisions.
What I'd like to do first is understand the full picture.
Then we go from there at whatever pace you need."
We talked for forty-five minutes.
I told her about the joint account, the spreadsheet, the thirty-one thousand, the photograph, the dinner.
She listened without interrupting except to ask for one clarification, and then another.
Clean, specific questions.
No drama.
At the end she said, "You are in a much stronger position than you probably feel right now."
"What does that mean practically?"
"It means you have documentation.
It means you have a witness in Harold who is prepared to support your account.
It means the financial pattern is already established in writing.
If you decide to proceed, we move from a foundation, not from scratch."
"And if I decide not to proceed?
If I decide to stay and try to repair this?"
"Then we make sure any agreement going forward is formal and protected.
No more informal arrangements.
No more shared access without structure."
June was watching me from across the table.
"I'll need a few days," I said to Katherine.
"Take the time you need," she said.
"But Olivia — don't wait so long that he has time to move money.
If you have any reason to believe that's possible, we act sooner."
I thought about Daniel in the driveway last night.
Head bowed.
Phone in his lap.
"I'll call you by Thursday," I said.
I hung up.
Sat with the weight of it.
Then I picked up my phone again and typed one word back to the number I didn't recognize.
*When.*
The reply came in under a minute.
*Today.
Wherever you choose.
I'm not here to cause trouble.
I think you deserve to know what I know.*
June read it over my shoulder.
"Do you trust that?" she asked.
May you like
"No," I said.
"But I'm going to go anyway."
