Chapter 11 - The Secret Patricia Saved
Emily stopped breathing.
Daniel turned.
“What baby?”
Patricia said nothing.
Detective Brooks guided her toward the door.
Daniel stepped in front of them.
“Mom.”
Her lawyer warned, “Do not speak.”
Daniel ignored him.
“What baby?”
Patricia smiled at Emily.
“You never told him?”
Emily went pale.
Daniel slowly turned toward his wife.
“Emily?”
She stared at Patricia.
“I hate you.”
Patricia’s smile widened.
“At least now we’re honest.”
“Emily.”
Daniel’s voice was different.
Afraid.
Emily closed her eyes.
Four years earlier, she had been pregnant.
Eleven weeks.
She had planned to tell Daniel after their anniversary dinner.
Then she started bleeding.
She lost the baby before Daniel ever knew it existed.
Patricia had been the one who drove her to the hospital because Daniel had been overseas for a development conference.
Emily had begged Patricia not to tell him until she could do it herself.
Then Daniel returned home to a company crisis.
Days became weeks.
Emily couldn’t find the words.
Eventually, grief hardened into silence.
Daniel stared at her.
“You were pregnant?”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
He looked as if the floor moved beneath him.
“And you lost…”
She nodded.
“A little girl.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
Ryan turned away.
Claire began crying again.
Daniel whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The night you came home.”
He searched his memory.
“That was when Northbridge threatened the project financing.”
“Yes.”
“I worked for three days.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I would have wanted to know.”
Emily looked at him.
“And I wanted a husband who noticed I could barely get out of bed.”
He flinched.
“I thought you were sick.”
“I was.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Emily wiped her cheek.
“I was bleeding. I was grieving. I couldn’t eat.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“And Patricia told me you couldn’t afford a distraction.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
Patricia looked away.
Emily continued.
“She said if I really loved you, I’d wait.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“You told her that?”
Patricia said nothing.
“You told my wife our dead daughter was a distraction?”
“Daniel—”
“ANSWER ME!”
“Yes!”
The word echoed.
Everyone froze.
Patricia’s eyes flashed.
“You were holding the company together.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped toward her.
“Emily was.”
Patricia looked at him.
Daniel’s eyes were wet.
“Emily was holding everything together.”
For once, Patricia had no response.
Detective Brooks led her away.
Daniel remained standing in the hallway.
Emily moved toward the exit.
“Emily.”
She stopped.
He approached carefully.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Then don’t say anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She looked at him.
Daniel’s voice shook.
“I’m sorry I made you feel alone in a marriage that was supposed to be ours.”
Emily stared at him.
He continued.
“I’m sorry I believed the loudest person in the room instead of the person who kept quietly saving me.”
Emily’s eyes filled again.
For a moment, she almost stepped toward him.
Then Michael’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Emily.”
She turned.
“What?”
“The forensic team found another account.”
“How much?”
Michael swallowed.
“Forty-eight million dollars.”
Daniel stared.
“Where?”
Michael looked at him.
“That’s the strange part.”
He turned the screen.
“The beneficiary isn’t Patricia.”
Emily read the name.
Her blood went cold.
BENEFICIARY: DANIEL WHITMORE.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“I’ve never seen that account in my life.”
Michael looked at him.
May you like
“Then someone spent fifteen years building it in your name.”
And the first deposit had been made when Daniel was nineteen years old.
