Chapter 3 - THE THINGS DAISY NEVER TOLD HIM
Everett did not sleep.
At three in the morning, he was sitting in the kitchen with Rebecca and Marcus, the head of security.
A laptop glowed between them.
Daisy slept upstairs in Everett’s bed.
She had asked him not to leave.
He hadn’t.
He waited until she fell asleep, then brought the meeting downstairs.
Marcus looked miserable.
“I should have caught this.”
Everett shook his head.
“I should have.”
“Sir, the removal crews came through my department.”
Everett’s eyes lifted.
“What?”
Marcus opened a security log.
“Three different dates over the past four months.”
Everett stared.
“Nobody called me?”
“Each request came from the household management account.”
“Meredith.”
“Yes.”
“And that was enough?”
Marcus hesitated.
“She had authorization for vendors.”
“To remove sofas. Schedule repairs. Not empty my dead wife’s belongings.”
“I understand.”
Everett leaned back.
He had spent years building systems designed to keep eighty-seven hotels running across four countries.
Approvals.
Audits.
Chains of command.
At home, he had created the opposite.
One person he trusted.
No oversight.
No questions.
Rebecca scrolled through records.
“Meredith didn’t just use household authorization. She attached emails that appeared to come from you.”
Everett looked at her.
“Appeared?”
“The address is almost identical to your executive account.”
She enlarged it.
Instead of [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), the messages came from [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
One hyphen.
Easy to miss.
Marcus swore quietly.
Everett stared.
“She created a fake domain.”
“Looks like it.”
“Why?”
“To make employees believe instructions were coming from you.”
Everett thought of Daisy.
Then another question hit him.
“Phone calls.”
Rebecca looked up.
“What?”
“Daisy said Meredith told her not to bother me.”
He grabbed his phone and opened his call history.
Very few calls from home.
Most came from Meredith.
Photos.
Updates.
Daisy is asleep.
Daisy had a good day.
Daisy doesn’t feel like talking tonight.
He had accepted every message.
Because it was convenient.
“Check the house phone records.”
Marcus opened another system.
A minute later, his expression changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“There were outgoing calls to your cell.”
Everett’s chest tightened.
“How many?”
Marcus counted.
“Thirty-two in the last three months.”
Everett stared at his phone.
He had received maybe five.
“Where did they go?”
Marcus examined the routing.
“They were forwarded.”
“To where?”
A pause.
“Meredith’s cell.”
Everett closed his eyes.
Daisy had been calling.
Meredith had redirected the calls.
Rebecca spoke softly.
“She isolated you.”
“No.”
Everett looked upstairs.
“She isolated Daisy.”
At seven-thirty, Daisy came downstairs wearing Natalie’s old blue scarf around her shoulders.
Everett recognized it immediately.
“You found that?”
Daisy nodded.
“I hid it.”
“From Meredith?”
Another nod.
“Where?”
“In my pillow.”
Everett’s heart tightened.
Daisy climbed onto a chair.
Rebecca gave her a gentle smile.
“Morning, Daisy.”
“Morning.”
Everett made pancakes.
He burned two before getting one right.
Daisy ate it without complaint.
Then he sat across from her.
“Sweetheart, I need to ask you something.”
She stopped chewing.
Immediately nervous.
Everett noticed.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Her shoulders lowered slightly.
“Okay.”
“When you tried calling me while I was traveling, what happened?”
Daisy looked at her plate.
“Sometimes Meredith said you were too busy.”
“Did you call anyway?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She would come take the phone.”
“Every time?”
“Most times.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when we talked?”
Daisy picked at the edge of her pancake.
“She stood there.”
Everett went still.
“While we talked?”
Daisy nodded.
“And if I said something she didn’t like, she squeezed my shoulder.”
Rebecca looked away.
Everett forced himself to remain calm.
“Did she hurt you other times?”
Daisy’s eyes immediately filled.
“I was bad.”
“No.”
“I cried a lot.”
“That does not make you bad.”
“She said it makes people tired.”
Everett reached across the table.
“Daisy.”
She looked at him.
“Nothing you say is going to make me send you away.”
“Promise?”
“On everything I have.”
Daisy stared at him for a long time.
Then words began coming out.
Quietly.
Broken into pieces.
Meredith made her sit alone in the mudroom when she cried about Natalie.
Meredith took photographs of Natalie out of Daisy’s bedroom because they were “unhealthy.”
When Daisy sneaked one back, Meredith took away her bedtime stories for a week.
On one occasion, Daisy spilled soup.
Meredith made her clean the entire dining floor.
Another time Daisy refused to put Natalie’s scarf into a donation box.
Meredith grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave the bruise Everett saw.
There had been no punches.
No dramatic injuries.
Just dozens of small cruelties.
The kind a child could be taught to believe were deserved.
Everett felt sicker with every sentence.
“Why didn’t anyone at school say something?”
Daisy shrugged.
“I didn’t tell.”
“Why?”
“Meredith said rich kids get sent away when they embarrass their families.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Everett felt something sharp move through his chest.
“What school with beds did she show you?”
Daisy slid down from her chair.
She ran upstairs and returned with a folded brochure.
Everett opened it.
Westbridge Academy.
A boarding school in Vermont.
Boarding began at age eight.
Daisy had circled one photograph in pencil.
A child standing beside a suitcase.
Underneath, in Daisy’s handwriting, were the words:
DON’T CRY THERE.
Everett could barely breathe.
He looked at Rebecca.
“I want this documented.”
“It will be.”
“Everything.”
“Yes.”
“Therapist.”
“I’ll find someone today.”
“Not someone connected to me.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Independent.”
Daisy tugged his sleeve.
“Am I going?”
He looked down.
“Where?”
“The school.”
He dropped to his knees.
“No.”
“Never?”
“Never because someone wants you out of the way.”
Her face crumpled with relief.
She threw her arms around him.
Everett held her.
Then the doorbell rang.
Marcus answered.
A woman stood outside.
Mid-fifties.
Gray cardigan.
Tired eyes.
Everett recognized her.
“Mrs. Alvarez?”
Carmen Alvarez had been Natalie’s housekeeper for nearly ten years.
She had left suddenly eight months earlier.
Meredith told Everett Carmen wanted to retire.
Carmen looked at Daisy.
Her eyes immediately filled.
“Mi niña.”
Daisy ran to her.
“Carmen!”
Carmen hugged her tightly.
Everett stared.
“You retired.”
Carmen looked at him.
“No, Mr. Sloan.”
His stomach dropped.
“Meredith fired me.”
The room went silent.
“Why?”
Carmen looked at Daisy.
“Because I told her she was being cruel to your daughter.”
Everett closed his eyes.
Another lie.
Carmen reached into her handbag.
“I tried to tell you.”
She handed Everett a stack of envelopes.
All addressed to his office.
All returned.
He looked at Rebecca.
“How?”
Carmen spoke.
“Your assistant said household matters had to go through Meredith.”
Everett frowned.
“My assistant?”
“Mr. Landon.”
Charles Landon.
Everett’s chief of staff.
The man who controlled his travel schedule, correspondence, and private appointments.
A man who had worked for Everett for eleven years.
Rebecca’s face changed.
“Everett.”
He already knew.
This was no longer just Meredith manipulating a household.
Someone inside his own office had helped her.
Everett immediately called Charles.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
He called corporate security.
“Find Charles Landon.”
Rebecca looked at Carmen.
“Did you see Meredith remove Natalie’s cedar box?”
Carmen nodded slowly.
Everett’s pulse jumped.
“When?”
“The day before she fired me.”
“Did you see where she took it?”
“No.”
“But I heard her arguing with someone on the phone.”
“About what?”
Carmen hesitated.
“She said, ‘The documents aren’t there.’”
Everett and Rebecca exchanged a look.
“What documents?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Carmen looked toward Daisy.
“But Mrs. Sloan told me something before she died.”
Everett stared.
“Natalie?”
Carmen nodded.
“She said if anything ever happened to her, Daisy’s future was protected in a way nobody could change.”
Everett’s chest tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Carmen swallowed.
“But she said the answer was where she made her happiest music.”
Everett slowly turned toward the empty music room upstairs.
The piano.
May you like
Natalie had hidden something inside the piano.
And Meredith had sold it before she found it.
