Chapter 5: The Husband Who Came Back From the Dead
For two years, I had imagined what I would do if Daniel somehow walked back through our front door.
Sometimes I imagined throwing my arms around him.
Sometimes I imagined slapping him so hard he would stagger backward.
Sometimes I imagined saying nothing at all, simply staring at the man whose absence had hollowed out our lives.
I had never imagined seeing him across the street while another man held a gun beneath his coat.
The black SUV's door slammed.
Daniel stepped onto the sidewalk.
His hair was shorter than I remembered, threaded with gray at the temples. He wore a dark jacket and carried himself differently, as if he had spent the last two years expecting someone to attack him from behind.
But it was his face.
The small scar near his eyebrow. The uneven smile. The way he rubbed his thumb against his wedding ring when he was nervous.
Except he wasn't wearing the ring.
I ran toward the front door.
“Renee, don't!”” Elena shouted through the phone.
I ignored her.
I pulled the door open and rushed down the steps.
“Daniel!””
He looked at me.
For one terrible second, I saw relief in his eyes.
Then he raised a hand.
“Stay there.””
I stopped halfway down the walkway.
“Are you serious?””
“Renee, please.””
“You're alive!””
My voice cracked on the last word.
“You've been alive for two years, and you let me bury you!””
Daniel flinched.
The man beside the SUV looked from him to me.
“Daniel,” the man warned, “we don't have time.””
I turned toward the stranger.
“Who are you?””
He didn't answer.
Daniel stepped between us.
“She's my wife.””
“Not anymore,” I said.
The words came out before I could stop them.
Daniel looked as if I'd struck him.
I hated that it hurt him.
I hated even more that I still cared.
“Where is Maya?”” I demanded.
His expression changed immediately.
“Is she with you?””
“No! She's missing because of you!””
He started toward me.
I stepped back.
“Don't come any closer.””
He stopped.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. A truck rumbled down the road, and somewhere behind the houses, a lawn mower started.
Ordinary sounds.
An ordinary neighborhood.
And my supposedly dead husband stood on the pavement, alive and unable to explain why our daughter had disappeared.
“Renee,” he said quietly, “I never wanted Maya involved.””
“Then why was she meeting you secretly?””
His eyes widened.
“You know about that?””
“I know about the notebook. I know Sullivan came into her bedroom. I know he took a flash drive, and I know he wants records you stole.””
Daniel looked at the man beside the SUV.
The stranger swore under his breath.
“You told me she didn't know,” he said.
“I thought she didn't.””
“Both of you need to stop talking,” I snapped.
“Right now.””
Daniel looked back at me.
“I can explain everything, but we need to leave.””
“No.””
“Renee, Sullivan knows where you live. He knows Maya contacted me. He'll come back.””
“He already came back.””
Daniel's face went pale.
“What did he say?””
“He wants the original records by six o'clock.””
Daniel closed his eyes.
For the first time, he looked genuinely frightened.
“Then he knows about the ring.””
I touched my empty necklace.
“He took it.””
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Of course he did.””
“What is inside it?””
He looked at me for a long moment.
“Evidence that proves Sullivan arranged the crash.””
My breath caught.
“You knew?””
“I suspected.””
“You let me believe you were dead!””
“I had no choice.””
“There is always a choice, Daniel!””
He flinched again.
I stepped closer, unable to contain the anger that had been building since the funeral.
“I sat in a church while people told me how brave I was. I held our daughter while she cried herself to sleep. I spent months paying bills, answering questions, and explaining to a thirteen-year-old why her father would never come home.””
My voice broke.
“And you were alive.””
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“I know.””
“No, you don't. You have no idea what you took from us.””
“I thought I was protecting you.””
“From what?””
He looked toward the black SUV.
“Northstar wasn't just laundering money. It was paying people inside law enforcement to bury investigations. I found records connecting Sullivan to a series of fraudulent claims and a death that was ruled accidental.””
“Your death?””
He nodded.
“They knew I had copied the files. Someone followed me that night. My car went off the road, but I escaped before it caught fire.””
I stared at him.
“You escaped?””
“I was injured. Elena got me out before the police arrived.””
“And you never came home?””
“If I'd returned, they'd have used you and Maya to force me to hand over the evidence.””
“So you left us to grieve.””
“I thought Sullivan would stop looking once the death was confirmed.””
“And when he didn't?””
Daniel looked away.
“I stayed hidden.””
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“You didn't even send a birthday card.””
“I couldn't.””
“You couldn't write your daughter a letter? You couldn't call her?””
“I made a mistake.””
“That is the smallest description of what you did.””
The stranger beside the SUV checked his watch.
“We need to move. Now.””
Daniel nodded reluctantly.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Tell me where Maya is.””
“I don't know.””
“You expect me to believe that?””
“I haven't seen her since yesterday morning. She was supposed to bring me the second copy of the files. When she didn't arrive, I realized Sullivan had found her.””
I stared at him.
“You sent our daughter into this?””
“No! She found me. She came to the railway station after discovering the ring. I told her to stay away, but she wouldn't listen.””
“Because she's your daughter.””
Daniel looked down.
“She said she wanted to know why I left.””
The words cut deeper than I expected.
“What did you tell her?””
“The truth.””
“Which truth?””
He hesitated.
I saw it then.
There was something he hadn't told me.
“Daniel.””
He rubbed his thumb against his bare ring finger.
“There's a part of this you don't know.””
“Then start talking.””
He glanced at the house.
“Not here.””
I stepped closer.
“You don't get to decide when I hear the truth anymore.””
He swallowed.
“Before the crash, I discovered that someone had been using my identity to approve payments I never authorized. When I confronted Sullivan, he said I should forget what I'd found.””
“And you didn't.””
“No. I copied the records.””
“What does that have to do with me?””
Daniel's expression crumpled.
“Renee, I didn't discover the fraud by accident.””
I went still.
He continued in a low voice.
“Two years before the crash, I found a series of payments to a company registered under your name.””
I stared at him.
“My name?””
“I thought someone had stolen your identity. I investigated, and the payments led to Northstar.””
“Why didn't you tell me?””
“Because the documents suggested the company had been created using information from our home. Your Social Security number. Your old address. Details only someone close to us would know.””
My stomach twisted.
“Are you accusing me?””
“No. Never.””
“Then who?””
Daniel looked at me with an expression I couldn't read.
“I don't know. But when I started asking questions, someone sent me a photograph of you leaving work.””
The stranger opened the SUV's rear door.
“Daniel. This is your last warning.””
Daniel ignored him.
“The night of the crash, I received a message telling me that if I didn't surrender the files, you'd be next.””
I remembered the fever Maya had developed that evening. The cancelled dinner. Daniel kissing my forehead before leaving.
“You knew they were threatening me?””
“Yes.””
“And you still went out?””
“I went to meet the person who promised to give me proof of who was behind it.””
“Who?””
Daniel's lips parted.
Before he could answer, a gunshot cracked through the neighborhood.
The SUV's rear window exploded.
I screamed and dropped to the pavement.
Daniel grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the low stone wall bordering our yard.
The stranger drew a weapon and fired twice toward the end of the street.
A dark sedan sped away, its tires squealing.
For several seconds, all I could hear was the ringing in my ears.
Daniel crouched beside me, breathing hard.
“Are you hurt?””
I shook my head.
Then I looked up at him.
“Who was that?””
He peered over the wall.
“I don't know.””
“Don't lie to me!””
He turned toward me, his face pale.
“Renee, I swear I don't know who fired.””
Sirens sounded in the distance.
The stranger ran back toward us.
“We're compromised. We have to go.””
Daniel grabbed my shoulders.
“Listen to me. You need to find Elena. Give her whatever Maya left behind, but don't tell Sullivan about the memory card.””
“How do you know about the card?””
His expression changed.
I felt the cold certainty of another betrayal.
“You knew Maya hid it?””
Daniel looked away.
“Renee—”
“You knew!””
“I helped her make a copy.””
“Then why didn't you tell me?””
“Because the copy isn't the only thing that can expose them.””
He pulled a folded photograph from his pocket and pressed it into my hand.
It showed three people standing outside a brick building.
Daniel.
Detective Sullivan.
And a woman I recognized immediately.
My older sister, Caroline.
The photograph had been taken eleven days before Daniel's supposed death.
I looked at him, unable to breathe.
“Why is my sister standing with you and Sullivan?””
May you like
Daniel's face went ashen.
“Because Caroline was the one who introduced me to Northstar.””
