Chapter 3 - The Envelope
Daniel drove past their house.
Emily noticed after the second intersection.
“Where are we going?”
“My office.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria doesn’t make accusations without evidence.”
Emily felt cold.
“Sometimes she does.”
“Not like that.”
Daniel tightened his hands on the steering wheel.
“She wanted me to react.”
“You did.”
“I mean to Thomas.”
Emily looked down.
Daniel had known Thomas Vale much better than she realized.
Their fathers had built competing companies.
But Daniel and Thomas had once been friends.
Not childhood friends.
Something more complicated.
They had attended the same university.
Worked on a technology venture together.
For almost two years, Thomas had been closer to Daniel than his own sister.
Then something happened.
Daniel rarely spoke about it.
Emily had learned not to ask.
Now he did the explaining himself.
“Thomas accused my father of stealing confidential research.”
Emily stared at him.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“What kind of research?”
“A logistics system. Predictive software. It eventually became the foundation of half our company’s transportation division.”
“Did your father steal it?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“You sound certain.”
“I was there.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
He looked at her sharply.
Emily immediately regretted the words.
Daniel breathed slowly.
“My father was difficult. Competitive. Sometimes ruthless. But he wasn’t a thief.”
“And Thomas?”
“He became obsessed.”
Daniel pulled into the underground garage of Carter Group headquarters.
“He said he could prove everything. Then he disappeared from the industry.”
“He was sick.”
Daniel stopped the car.
“What?”
Emily realized her mistake.
Daniel turned toward her.
“You knew he was sick?”
“He told me.”
“What exactly did he tell you?”
“Not much.”
Daniel stared at her.
Emily could see years of trust beginning to collide with the last thirty minutes.
She reached for his hand.
He moved it away.
Not cruelly.
Almost unconsciously.
It hurt more than if he had shouted.
They entered the building through a private elevator.
Daniel’s office occupied the top floor.
Emily had been there dozens of times, but that evening everything felt unfamiliar.
Daniel removed his jacket and placed it over a chair.
“Start from the beginning.”
Emily told him.
The café.
The conversations.
Sophie.
The hospital.
The envelope.
When she finished, Daniel stood near the window with his back to her.
“You still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Emily hesitated.
“At my mother’s house.”
Daniel turned.
“You kept a secret document from Thomas Vale in your mother’s house for four years?”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You could have told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Exactly this.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No. This is happening because you didn’t tell me.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
He looked away.
The anger in him was struggling against something else.
Love.
Fear.
Betrayal.
“You met me three weeks later.”
“Yes.”
“Was that an accident?”
Emily recoiled.
“Daniel.”
“Answer me.”
“Of course it was.”
“Did Thomas send you to me?”
“No.”
“Did you know who I was?”
“Not when we first spoke.”
“But afterward?”
“Yes.”
“And you still said nothing.”
“I loved you.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Daniel pressed both hands against the edge of his desk.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then the office door opened.
Victoria entered.
She had changed clothes.
Her hair was damp.
No trace of tomato sauce remained except for a faint reddish stain near her hairline.
Daniel’s face hardened instantly.
“Get out.”
Victoria closed the door behind her.
“I think you’ll want to hear this.”
“I said get out.”
“I have the photograph.”
Emily stood.
Victoria placed a folder on the desk.
Daniel did not touch it.
Victoria opened it herself.
The photograph slid across the polished wood.
Emily saw herself outside St. Matthew’s.
Thomas beside her.
His fingers wrapped around her hand.
It looked intimate.
It was not.
But photographs did not care about context.
Daniel stared.
Victoria watched him carefully.
“There’s more.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What did you do?”
Victoria ignored her.
“My investigator found Thomas’s driver.”
Daniel looked up.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He remembers Emily.”
Emily’s heart began pounding.
Victoria continued.
“He claims Thomas instructed him to follow her after the hospital meeting.”
“That’s not true,” Emily said.
Victoria smiled.
“You weren’t supposed to know.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Know what?”
Victoria pulled another sheet from the folder.
A typed statement.
“He says Thomas believed Emily would eventually get close to you.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Daniel read the page.
Once.
Twice.
His face went pale.
“Why?”
Victoria looked directly at Emily.
“Because apparently the envelope wasn’t meant to be hidden.”
May you like
She paused.
“It was meant to reach Daniel.”
