Chapter 2 - The Lie She Couldn’t Explain
Marissa tried to leave.
Daniel stopped her without touching her.
“Your coat can wait.”
Her handbag was on a chair near the foyer.
Her car keys were inside it.
She stared at him.
“You don’t get to keep me prisoner.”
“I’m not. The door is right there.”
“Then move.”
“First tell me why you lied.”
“I don’t owe you an interrogation.”
“No. But you owed me the truth before you agreed to marry me.”
Lily stood near the stairs with Owen.
Daniel turned toward them.
“Go upstairs.”
Lily didn’t move.
“Dad—”
“Please.”
She looked at Marissa and shook her head.
“I’m not leaving Owen alone.”
“Take him with you.”
Owen whispered, “I want to stay.”
Daniel crouched in front of his son.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Take Lily upstairs. I’ll come talk to you.”
Owen glanced at Marissa.
That frightened look decided everything for Daniel.
He stood.
“Lily, lock your bedroom door.”
Marissa gave a short, incredulous laugh.
“You’re making me sound dangerous.”
Lily answered before Daniel could.
“You hit me.”
Marissa’s jaw tightened.
The children went upstairs.
Daniel waited until he heard Lily’s door close.
Then he placed the gold frame on the table between them.
“Talk.”
Marissa folded her arms.
“I knew Clara in college.”
“You told me you had never met her.”
“I knew you’d react like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like every memory of her belongs inside a glass case.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My wife died. That doesn’t explain why you lied.”
Marissa looked toward the photograph.
“We weren’t close by the time she married you.”
“The picture was taken nineteen days before she died.”
Silence.
Daniel tapped the date.
“That isn’t college.”
Marissa looked away.
“Clara contacted me.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to talk.”
“About?”
“Old business.”
“What business?”
Marissa hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
The hesitation was becoming more revealing than her answers.
He reached for his phone.
Marissa’s eyes snapped back to him.
“Who are you calling?”
“My sister.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not leaving the children here with you tonight.”
“Daniel.”
“And then I’m calling the police about what happened to Lily.”
Marissa laughed bitterly.
“You’re going to report me after you hit me?”
“Yes.”
That stopped her.
Daniel’s voice remained low.
“I’ll tell them exactly what I did too.”
“You could be arrested.”
“I understand.”
“You could lose your children.”
Fear tightened in his stomach.
She saw it.
For a moment, Daniel recognized the woman he had fallen in love with—the woman who seemed able to notice every insecurity before he said it aloud.
Now he wondered how often she had used that talent deliberately.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he asked.
Marissa blinked.
“What?”
“If I became frightened enough not to report you.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“You knew exactly what you were saying.”
His sister Maya answered on the third ring.
“Daniel?”
“I need you to come over.”
“What happened?”
“Bring enough clothes to stay with the kids tonight.”
Maya heard something in his voice.
“I’m leaving now.”
Daniel hung up.
Marissa picked up her handbag.
“I’m going to a hotel.”
He didn’t stop her.
At the doorway, she turned.
“You think that photograph means something terrible because grief taught you to build monsters out of unanswered questions.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You want the truth?” she continued. “Clara hated me.”
“Why?”
Marissa’s expression changed.
For one second, the anger disappeared.
Something like shame moved underneath it.
“Because I knew what she was capable of.”
Daniel stared.
Marissa opened the door.
He said, “What does that mean?”
She stepped onto the porch.
“Ask yourself why Clara never told you about me.”
Then she left.
Daniel stood in the foyer listening to her car disappear down the driveway.
Maya arrived twenty minutes later.
She was Clara’s younger sister by two years, a pediatric physical therapist with the same dark eyes Clara had inherited from their mother.
She took one look at the books still covering the dining-room floor.
“Where are the kids?”
“Upstairs.”
“What happened?”
Daniel told her.
All of it.
Including the moment he hit Marissa.
Maya’s face tightened.
“You can’t do that.”
“I know.”
“No matter what she did.”
“I know.”
“Lily saw you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Maya studied him.
Then she noticed the frame.
“What’s that?”
Daniel handed it to her.
Maya looked at the photograph.
She froze.
Daniel saw recognition before she tried to hide it.
“You know her.”
Maya swallowed.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve seen that face before.”
“Where?”
Maya turned the frame over, reading the date.
“After Clara died, Mom and I went through some boxes from her old apartment. There were letters. Photographs.”
“Of Marissa?”
“I didn’t know her name.”
Daniel’s skin prickled.
“What letters?”
Maya looked upstairs, as though checking the children couldn’t hear.
“One of them had been torn in half.”
“From who?”
“I don’t know. Clara only kept the bottom.”
“What did it say?”
Maya’s eyes met his.
“Something about money.”
Daniel waited.
“And?”
Maya hesitated.
“Something about someone promising Clara she would never come near her family again.”
Daniel looked at the photograph in his hand.
May you like
Maya whispered, “Daniel, who exactly have you been planning to marry?”
---
