Chapter 15 - Daniel’s Lie
Daniel did not forgive Rebecca quickly.
“You let me marry her.”
Rebecca’s face flushed.
“I told you not to.”
“You knew she was taking money from Aaron.”
“I knew Claire suspected it.”
“You moved the money.”
“Because Claire asked me to.”
“You could have told me.”
“And Claire made me promise not to until we knew whether Madeline would testify.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Claire had been dead eighteen months when I married Madeline.”
Rebecca looked away.
“By then Madeline told me she was done with Aaron.”
“You believed her?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
Rebecca’s answer surprised him.
“Because she helped Claire.”
Daniel stared.
“Even after Claire confronted her, Madeline stayed through hospice. She bathed her. She sat with her when you were away.”
Guilt burned.
Rebecca continued.
“People can do terrible things and loving things. Sometimes the same person. Claire understood that better than either of us.”
Daniel sank into a chair.
“What was the money for?”
“Madeline said Aaron had been paying her from Graycap since before she worked for Claire. At first she helped him get internal information—schedules, vendor documents, who was reviewing what.”
“Corporate espionage.”
“Yes.”
“And later?”
“She wanted out. Claire told her to return the money without alerting Aaron. So Madeline routed some of it to an account Claire controlled through me.”
“Why your name?”
“Because Aaron watched Madeline’s accounts.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“How much?”
“About one hundred eighty thousand.”
“Where is it?”
“Still there.”
Rebecca pushed her phone across the table.
The balance remained almost untouched.
Daniel looked up.
“Why didn’t Madeline tell me after Claire died?”
“She was afraid.”
“Of Aaron?”
“And of you.”
Daniel recoiled.
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“You don’t understand what you were like then.”
“I never would have hurt her.”
“Not physically.”
The distinction stung.
“You would have fired her, exposed her, turned her over to lawyers, and never let her near the children again.”
“She had stolen from my company.”
“Yes.”
“That is what should have happened.”
“Probably.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“But Claire was dying, Madeline was helping us keep the house running, and everyone was making compromised choices.”
Daniel stood.
“Don’t include me in decisions I didn’t know existed.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You had your own secrets.”
He froze.
“What?”
She stared at him for a long moment.
“Tell Sophie why you really missed her school recital last year.”
Daniel’s face changed.
The recital.
He had told Sophie his flight from Chicago was delayed.
It had not been.
He had stayed for a private Halcyon meeting.
Not because he intended to sell the company.
Because Halcyon had offered him a personal retention package worth $28 million if he accepted the acquisition.
Daniel had refused.
Eventually.
But he had attended.
He had lied to his daughter.
Rebecca knew because Claire’s former assistant had seen the meeting on his calendar.
Daniel sat down again.
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“It has everything to do with why Sophie believed Madeline when she said you chose the company.”
Daniel looked away.
Rebecca’s voice became softer.
“You keep talking as if Madeline created every crack in this family. She exploited them. She widened them. But some cracks were already there.”
Daniel wanted to hate her for saying it.
Instead, shame settled deeper.
That night he told Sophie.
No excuses.
“I lied about the flight.”
Sophie stared at him across the kitchen island.
“Why?”
“I had a business meeting.”
Her eyes filled immediately.
“You said the plane was late.”
“I know.”
“Why did you lie?”
“Because telling you I chose the meeting would have hurt you.”
“So you lied so I wouldn’t be hurt?”
“Yes.”
“That’s stupid.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Instead, he nodded.
“Yes.”
She turned away.
“Madeline was right.”
The words crushed him.
“About that one thing,” Daniel said carefully. “She took something true and used it to make you believe things that weren’t true.”
Sophie wiped her face angrily.
“You did pick work.”
“Yes.”
Her shoulders shook.
Daniel did not reach for her.
He waited.
Finally she turned.
“Are you going to lie again?”
“I probably will make mistakes again.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He inhaled.
“I’m going to try very hard not to lie to you because I’m afraid of disappointing you.”
Sophie stared at him.
Not satisfied.
But listening.
His phone rang.
Agent Benton.
“We traced another Graycap transfer.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“To whom?”
“Not a person.”
“What?”
“A storage facility.”
“Where?”
“Santa Fe.”
Daniel remembered the photograph of Madeline and Aaron outside a hotel there.
“What was stored?”
“We’re obtaining records.”
Two hours later Benton called again.
“A safe-deposit-style private vault box was rented under Graycap’s name.”
“Who accessed it?”
“Three people over four years.”
“Aaron?”
“Yes.”
“Madeline?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Benton paused.
“Claire Mercer.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Claire had gone to Santa Fe.
May you like
She had accessed the conspirators’ private vault.
And whatever she found there had frightened her enough to build every safeguard now keeping her family from collapsing completely.
