Daniel’s brother-in-law. The one who died eight months ago. I looked at the woman again.
“Emily?” I whispered.
Daniel’s younger sister looked up at me with tearful eyes. She didn’t look the same.
“She lost everything after Mark died,” Daniel said softly behind me. “The hospital bills… the rent… everything.”
I stared at him, unable to speak.
“Our parents blamed her for the debt,” he continued bitterly. “They stopped answering her phone. She and Noah were about to lose this house.”
Emily wiped her face with a shaking hand. “I told them not to hide it from you.”
“Then why did you do it?” I asked Daniel.
His eyes filled with guilt.
“Because we were already in serious financial trouble,” he admitted. “And I knew you’d be offended if I used our savings without asking.”
I felt tears burning my eyes.
“So, instead, you lied to me every week?”
“I was trying to help my sister survive.”
“What about me?” My voice cracked. “I thought my husband had another family.”
Daniel looked devastated.
“I’ve never touched another woman, Claire.”
“But you keep shutting me out.”
The drive home was silent.
The rain slid down the windshield in light streaks as Daniel gripped the steering wheel with both hands. I sat next to him, staring out the window, emotionally exhausted.
I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to cry. And part of me even hated him for making me believe the worst. But another part of me couldn’t stop seeing Emily’s blank face or the baby clinging to Daniel as if he were the only stable thing left in her world.
When we finally reached the driveway, Daniel turned off the engine but didn’t move.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly.
I crossed my arms. “You should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“You made me think you were having an affair.”
His voice cracked. “I thought if I told you how much money I was giving Emily, you’d be devastated. We were already in trouble.”
I looked at him.
The dark circles under his eyes, the tiredness on his face, and the guilt he’d obviously been carrying for months.
“You decided this on your own,” I whispered.
A tear slid down his cheek before he quickly wiped it away.
“I didn’t know how to fix this,” he admitted. “Emily was drowning. Noah kept asking when his dad would be home. And every time I looked at you and Lily, I felt like I was letting all of you down.”
The anger inside me subsided painfully. Not because the lies were acceptable, but because I finally understood where they came from.
Fear. Shame. Despair.
