Chapter 3 - What Susan Already Knew
Susan called me before noon.
I let it ring.
Then she called my mother.
Then Mara.
Then me again.
At 12:36, she finally left a voicemail.
“Jennifer, please call me before you misunderstand something that was never meant to hurt you.”
I replayed it twice.
Not because I believed her.
Because I wanted to remember exactly how people sounded when they were caught.
Mara told me not to confront Susan alone.
She also told me the loan documents were serious enough to send to a forensic document examiner.
“If Daniel forged your signature, we may be dealing with criminal exposure.”
“What about Susan’s note?”
“It proves knowledge of something.”
“Not necessarily what.”
“Exactly.”
I hated that answer.
I wanted certainty.
Instead, I had seventeen pages of questions.
That afternoon Chloe agreed to meet us at Mara’s office.
I expected someone glamorous.
Someone who would walk through the door looking like the woman who had stolen my husband.
Instead, Chloe Bennett looked exhausted.
She was thirty-four.
Her hair was tied into a loose ponytail.
There were shadows under her eyes.
She carried a diaper bag over one shoulder.
And against her chest slept a tiny baby boy.
My first reaction embarrassed me.
I hated him for half a second.
Not the baby.
What he represented.
Then he made a soft sound in his sleep.
And the hatred vanished.
Children were not responsible for the lies adults built around them.
Chloe sat across from me.
“This is Noah.”
I nodded.
“How old?”
“Five weeks.”
Five weeks.
Daniel had left our house three nights after Lily came home from the hospital because he claimed an important client had flown in unexpectedly.
I knew immediately where he had actually gone.
Chloe looked down.
“He was there when Noah was born.”
I swallowed.
“Of course he was.”
Her eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what to do with your apology yet.”
“That’s fair.”
Mara sat between us.
“Start with what Daniel told you about Jennifer.”
Chloe nodded.
“He said they had been separated emotionally for almost a year.”
I laughed once.
It sounded ugly.
Chloe flinched.
“He said they were staying together publicly until after the baby was born.”
“What baby?”
“Lily.”
“He told you he was leaving me?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After the baptism.”
The room became very quiet.
I thought of Susan’s handwritten note.
After baptism, we move on Jennifer.
“Did he ever mention custody?”
Chloe hesitated.
“Yes.”
My fingers curled.
“What did he say?”
“He said Jennifer had become unstable during pregnancy.”
My chest tightened.
“He said you screamed at him.”
“I never did.”
“He said you threw things.”
“I never did.”
“He told me once that you forgot to turn off the stove and nearly started a fire.”
I stared at her.
“That never happened.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“I believe you now.”
“Why now?”
“Because he told me you knew about Noah.”
I looked toward the baby.
“What exactly did he say?”
“That you knew the baby might be his.”
“Might?”
Chloe’s face changed.
Mara noticed.
“What does that mean?”
Chloe looked at me.
“When Daniel and I started seeing each other again, I had just separated from my husband.”
“Your ex-husband.”
“Yes.”
“Was there a possibility Noah was his?”
“Yes.”
My mind sharpened.
“Does Daniel know that?”
“He always knew.”
That surprised me.
“He was paying for everything without knowing whether Noah was his?”
“He said it didn’t matter.”
“Why?”
Chloe looked ashamed.
“Because he said he wanted a son.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
I thought of Lily.
My beautiful daughter.
My husband had stood at her baptism and called her the greatest gift of his life.
Meanwhile, he had been secretly building another family because the other baby might be a boy.
Chloe opened her purse.
“There’s something else.”
She placed a small digital recorder on the table.
“I started recording Daniel three weeks ago.”
Mara leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because he changed after Noah was born.”
“How?”
“He started talking about money.”
My pulse quickened.
“What money?”
“He said that once the divorce was done, he would have access to funds that were currently tied up because of Jennifer.”
I stared at her.
“Did he say how much?”
Chloe nodded slowly.
“Almost three hundred thousand dollars.”
I almost laughed.
Daniel and I did not have three hundred thousand dollars.
Not in savings.
Not even close.
“Where was he getting three hundred thousand dollars?”
“I asked him.”
“And?”
“He told me Lily had money.”
My throat closed.
“No.”
Chloe looked confused.
“He said there was a trust.”
“There is.”
I suddenly understood.
My grandfather had established an education trust for his great-grandchildren years earlier.
Lily’s portion had been funded shortly after her birth.
Daniel was not a trustee.
I was.
So was my mother.
He could not touch it.
Unless something happened to me.
Mara saw the realization on my face.
“Jennifer?”
I stood so quickly that my chair rolled backward.
“The custody papers.”
Mara’s expression changed.
If Daniel could convince a court that I was unstable and unfit, he could ask to control Lily’s finances as her custodial parent.
Three hundred thousand dollars was not money Daniel already had.
It was money he expected to gain access to.
Chloe picked up the recorder.
“There’s one more thing you should hear.”
She pressed play.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
Calm.
Confident.
May you like
Almost cheerful.
“Once Jennifer is out of the way, everything gets easier.”
