Chapter 6: What Daniel Knew
I looked at Daniel.
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing about the baby.”
Eleanor tapped the document.
“Read it.”
My father’s attorney lifted the page.
“‘Daniel Hartwell expresses concern that his wife has concealed significant facts, behaved unpredictably, and may leave without warning.’”
“I signed that months ago,” Daniel said.
“Mother told me it was for a marriage counselor.”
“You signed a notarized statement without reading it?”
“She covered the last paragraph.”
Eleanor smiled.
“A signature still counts.”
The attorney set the document down.
“Not when obtained through deception, and certainly not as proof that Anna is unfit.”
“But it could frighten her,” Miriam said.
Eleanor turned on her.
“You were paid to count numbers, not interpret people.”
“And I counted every dollar you moved.”
The officer asked Eleanor to step away from the table.
She refused.
“This is my daughter’s wedding.”
Adrian looked around at the abandoned cake, the silent guests, and Chloe’s crushed phone.
“No,” he said.
“It isn’t.”
Chloe moved toward him.
“You cannot erase our vows because you are embarrassed.”
“I am seeking an annulment because you built those vows on fraud.”
She grabbed his sleeve.
“My mother made me do it.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“Careful, Chloe.”
“No, you be careful.
You said the Bennett family would pay before anyone discovered the missing funds.”
Daniel stared at them.
“You knew who Anna’s father was?”
Eleanor gave him a pitying look.
“I knew six months after your wedding.”
I turned to Daniel.
“Did you?”
His silence answered first.
“Say it,” I demanded.
He swallowed.
“I found an old photograph of you at a Bennett Foundation event.”
“How long ago?”
“Last year.”
My hand went to the chair.
“You asked me ten minutes ago who my father was.”
“I needed to know whether he was the same Arthur Bennett.”
“You already knew.”
“I suspected.”
My father stepped closer, but I raised one hand.
“Let him speak.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“The company was failing.
Mother said if I could persuade you to introduce us, everyone’s jobs would be safe.”
“So you stayed because of my father?”
“No.
Anna, I loved you.”
“Then why didn’t you defend me?”
“Because I kept thinking I could calm them down after they forced the truth out of you.”
A third wave of pain tightened through me.
This time I could not hide it.
“Anna?” my father said.
“I need air.”
The officer unlocked a side door, and Miriam walked with me into a quiet corridor.
Daniel followed until my father blocked him.
“Please,” Daniel said.
“She is carrying my child.”
“She was carrying your child when you handed over her purse.”
I pressed both hands beneath my stomach.
“Dad, stop.
Something is wrong.”
His face changed instantly.
“Call an ambulance.”
Daniel pushed past him.
“Anna, look at me.”
“No.”
“I should have chosen you.”
“You should not have needed to choose.”
Tears slipped down my face before I could stop them.
Miriam knelt beside my chair and held my hand.
“You are not alone,” she said.
“Not in this hallway and not after tonight.”
The pain eased slightly.
I lowered my forehead toward hers and cried while she stayed beside me.
Adrian appeared with a glass of water.
“The ambulance is two minutes away.”
Behind him, Chloe slipped through the open side door.
May you like
The officer shouted, “Stop!”
Chloe ran toward the parking lot with Harold’s sealed audit folder pressed beneath her arm.
