Chapter 6 - THE DEAD HUSBAND WHO CAME HOME
I did not run to him.
That surprised everyone.
Especially me.
Daniel stood on Nathaniel’s porch looking like a ghost who had learned how to breathe.
My first feeling was not relief.
It was rage.
Then grief.
Then something so large I couldn’t name it.
“You’re alive.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
The sound cracked across the porch.
Nathaniel said nothing.
State police said nothing.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I deserved that.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let Maisie cry for you.”
His face collapsed.
“I know.”
“You let her ask me why Daddy had to die.”
“I know.”
I hit his chest with both hands.
He barely moved.
“I hated God for you.”
“I know.”
“You knew where we were?”
Daniel looked away.
That answer destroyed something.
“Yes.”
I stopped touching him.
Nathaniel stepped slightly closer to me.
Not possessive.
Protective.
Daniel noticed.
Something complicated passed over his face.
“Where’s Maisie?”
“Inside.”
“Julian?”
“Gone.”
Nathaniel’s voice became ice.
“What?”
Daniel looked at him.
“He left through the east service tunnel ten minutes before you arrived.”
Nathaniel turned toward Evan.
Evan was already moving.
I grabbed Daniel’s shirt.
“Why are you here?”
“He brought me.”
“Julian?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Daniel looked toward the house.
“To make Nathaniel give him the flash drive.”
“Why would Nathaniel care if you’re alive?”
Daniel’s eyes moved to Nathaniel.
“Because I’m the only person who knows where the original ledger is.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“Maisie?”
“Safe.”
I pushed past both men.
I found her in the library with Ruth.
Ruth had blood in her hair but was conscious.
Maisie saw me and ran.
I dropped to my knees.
She hit me hard enough that I nearly fell backward.
“Mommy.”
“I’m here.”
“The bad cousin took my music box.”
My eyes closed.
Of course.
“But Daddy’s here.”
I looked over her shoulder.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
Maisie went completely still.
Children understand impossible things faster than adults sometimes.
She stared.
Then whispered, “Daddy?”
Daniel broke.
He dropped to his knees.
“Hi, bug.”
That had been his name for her.
Maisie started crying.
Then she ran.
Daniel caught her.
I turned away.
Nathaniel stood beside me.
His face was unreadable.
I hated myself for noticing the pain in it.
This was not his tragedy.
Except somehow he had become part of it.
Maisie clung to Daniel.
“Why did you go away?”
Daniel had no good answer.
He knew it.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
She pulled back.
“You didn’t.”
The room went silent.
A six-year-old had summarized two years of damage in two words.
Daniel cried harder.
“I know.”
Later, after a doctor checked Ruth and Maisie fell asleep beside my mother, we sat in Nathaniel’s study.
Daniel told us everything.
He survived the crash.
Barely.
Julian’s men reached the scene before police.
They pulled Daniel from the car because they needed information.
The body found inside belonged to another man involved in the attack.
By the time Daniel escaped two days later, Julian had already arranged the identification.
Dental records falsified.
Hospital record manipulated.
Closed casket.
Daniel had a choice.
Come home and reveal he survived.
Or disappear before Julian realized he escaped.
“You chose disappearing.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Without telling me.”
“I contacted your mother.”
I stood.
“What?”
Daniel shook his head quickly.
“She didn’t know I was alive. I left a coded message telling her to move you if anyone approached.”
“That isn’t telling me.”
“I know.”
“Did you ever see Maisie?”
His eyes filled.
“From a distance.”
My stomach turned.
“How often?”
“Birthdays.”
I hated him.
I loved him.
I wanted to hit him again.
Nathaniel asked, “Where did you go?”
“Vermont. Then Montreal.”
“Doing what?”
“Finishing the investigation.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“You haven’t changed.”
“Neither have you.”
I looked between them.
“You two can reminisce later.”
Both men shut up.
“What happened to the ledger?”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Caleb split the information among objects. The flash drive you found contains one section. The music box contained another.”
“And the third?”
Nathaniel asked.
Daniel looked at him.
“The watch.”
Nathaniel’s hand slowly moved toward his wrist.
The heavy watch.
The one he wore at Bellwether.
“Caleb gave this to me.”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel removed it.
Daniel turned it over.
Pressed two hidden points.
The back opened.
A micro-SD card slid into his palm.
Nathaniel stared.
“You knew?”
“I designed the compartment.”
Nathaniel laughed once in disbelief.
“So Julian planted a bomb under me while I had the thing he wanted on my wrist.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me years ago?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Because Caleb didn’t trust you.”
The words landed hard.
Nathaniel’s face went blank.
“Why?”
“Because you were becoming like your father.”
Silence.
Daniel continued.
“Caleb thought if you had the ledger too early, you’d use it to control people instead of expose them.”
Nathaniel looked away.
I saw shame there.
Daniel continued.
“He hoped losing him might change you.”
“That’s a hell of a plan.”
“He was dying either way.”
Nathaniel’s eyes snapped back.
“What?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Caleb knew Julian was moving against him.”
“You could have told me.”
“We didn’t know if you’d believe us.”
Nathaniel stood.
“I would have.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Would you?”
The question hung there.
Nathaniel slowly sat again.
Maybe he didn’t know.
Maybe that hurt most.
Daniel placed the micro-SD card on the desk.
“With all three pieces, we can prove Julian ordered Caleb’s murder.”
“And yours,” I said.
“Attempted.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
He looked at me.
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“Say why you didn’t trust me.”
His face changed.
“It wasn’t about trust.”
“It was exactly about trust.”
“I was afraid you would follow me.”
“Yes.”
“And you had Maisie.”
“You decided for me.”
“Yes.”
Just like Nathaniel had tried to do earlier.
Men protecting women by removing their choices.
I suddenly understood why Nathaniel looked uncomfortable.
He recognized it too.
Daniel whispered, “I thought being hated was better than getting you killed.”
I stared at him.
“You didn’t give me the chance to hate you.”
My voice broke.
“You made me mourn you.”
He cried silently.
No answer could fix that.
Nathaniel’s phone rang.
Evan.
He answered.
“What?”
His expression changed.
“Where?”
He stood.
“We found Julian.”
Daniel looked up.
Nathaniel continued listening.
Then went completely still.
“What do you mean?”
Evan’s voice was faint through the phone.
Nathaniel lowered it slowly.
“He has the music box.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
“And?”
Nathaniel looked at me.
“He has Maisie’s grandmother.”
My blood froze.
“My mother?”
Nathaniel nodded.
Julian had escaped the estate.
But before police sealed the roads, he had taken my mother from the guest cottage.
One hostage lost.
Another gained.
And this time he sent Nathaniel a location.
May you like
Boston Harbor.
The same docks where Caleb had died eight years earlier.
