Chapter 6: The Call Richard Didn't Expect
Kyle left without another word.
The door didn't slam — that was almost worse.
He pulled it shut quietly, like a man who was already planning his next move.
Daniel stood at the window and watched his brother's car back out of the driveway.
"He'll say the recording is inadmissible," he said.
"He'll say he was joking.
He'll find a way to reframe it."
"Maybe," Emma said.
"But he said it out loud.
In front of you.
In front of my mother." She looked at the phone in her hand.
"And I have it."
Her mother came and sat beside her on the sofa.
She didn't say anything.
She just put her hand over Emma's.
"I need to call Richard," Emma said.
Her mother nodded.
She dialed.
It rang twice.
"Emma." His voice was careful.
Not cold — just careful, the way a man sounds when he's been hurt and hasn't decided yet what to do with it.
"I know you're not coming back today because of what I said," Emma started.
"And I'm not calling to ask you to change your mind about the money.
I'm calling because I found out something this morning and you need to know what it is."
Silence on the line.
She told him everything.
The texts.
The number.
Kyle's dinner conversation about the woman who regretted her stepfather walking her down the aisle.
The venue payment.
The recording.
Richard didn't speak for a long time after she finished.
"He's been in my house," Richard said finally.
"He's sat at my table."
"I know."
"How long have you known the texts weren't real?"
"Two hours."
Another silence.
Then: "Did you believe them?
When you were reading them?"
Emma closed her eyes.
"Yes.
I believed every word.
I cried over them.
I thought—" She stopped.
"I thought my father finally wanted me.
And it wasn't real.
None of it was real."
She heard something on the other end of the line that she couldn't quite name.
A breath, maybe.
Or the absence of one.
"Emma." His voice had changed.
The careful distance was gone.
"I want you to listen to me.
I have been your father since you were four years old.
I have never once — not for a single day — thought of you as anything other than my daughter.
What you said this morning hurt me more than I know how to tell you.
But I understand now that someone put those words in your mouth."
She pressed her hand over her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I'm so sorry, Richard."
"I know you are."
"Will you—" She couldn't finish the sentence.
"I'm already in the car," he said.
She laughed — a broken, relieved sound — and her mother reached over and squeezed her hand tighter.
"There's one more thing," Emma said.
"Kyle paid the venue.
I want to give that money back to him.
I don't want anything from him."
"We'll figure that out," Richard said.
"One thing at a time."
"Okay."
"Emma.
I'll be there in fifteen minutes.
And I would very much like to walk my daughter down the aisle."
She couldn't speak for a moment.
She just nodded, even though he couldn't see it.
"I'll be here," she finally managed.
She ended the call.
Her mother was watching her with wet eyes.
"He's coming back," Emma said.
Her mother pulled her in and held her, and neither of them said anything else.
They didn't need to.
Daniel appeared in the doorway.
He had been listening from the hall.
"I need to talk to Kyle," he said quietly.
"Not about the recording.
Not about the money.
I need to talk to my brother." He looked at Emma.
"Is that okay?"
"Yes," she said.
"But Daniel — whatever he tells you, whatever explanation he gives — remember what he said in this room."
Daniel nodded.
He picked up his keys.
His phone buzzed on the counter before he reached the door.
He glanced at the screen and stopped walking.
"It's Kyle," he said.
"He sent a text."
Emma looked up.
"What does it say?"
Daniel turned the phone around so she could read it.
May you like
*Tell her to drop the recording or I'll make sure Richard finds out what she said to me six months ago.
She knows what I mean.*
