Chapter 10 - THE NIGHT DANIEL BROKE
Police arrived before us.
Daniel stood in his parents’ driveway.
His shirt was torn.
Blood ran from his knuckles.
Robert sat on the porch with an ice pack against his cheek.
Diane screamed and ran toward him.
Daniel looked at me.
For one second, he seemed relieved.
Then anger returned.
“You.”
I stopped ten feet away.
“Go with the officers.”
“You did this.”
“No.”
“You poisoned everyone.”
“I showed them documents.”
“You took my wife.”
I almost laughed.
“I am your wife.”
His face twisted.
“You stopped being my wife months ago.”
“No.”
“You stopped treating me like one.”
Police moved closer.
Daniel shouted.
“I was drowning!”
“Then you should have told me.”
“You would have left.”
“I might have helped.”
He stared at me.
That possibility seemed to hurt him more than anything.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
“I don’t.”
He covered his face.
“I kept thinking I could fix it.”
“With Chloe?”
“She made me feel like I wasn’t failing.”
“With gambling?”
“I could win it back.”
“With forging my name?”
“I needed time.”
“With planning to call me unstable?”
His hands dropped.
“Bell said it was leverage.”
“Against your pregnant wife.”
“I panicked.”
“Again and again?”
He had no answer.
An officer stepped forward.
“Mr. Cole, turn around.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You’re letting them arrest me?”
“For assaulting your father?”
“He grabbed me first.”
Robert shouted from the porch.
“You shoved your mother.”
Daniel went still.
Diane cried harder.
That was the line even he could not rewrite.
Police cuffed him.
As they placed him in the car, he looked at me.
“Jennifer!”
I waited.
“Don’t let them take the company.”
I almost couldn’t believe it.
Not don’t leave me.
Not take care of Lily.
The company.
Even then.
The next morning, Daniel was released on bond.
His business partners voted to suspend him.
I was asked to serve as temporary financial manager because of the bridge loan and my history with the company.
I refused the title.
Then forty-seven employees signed a letter.
Please help us survive this.
I accepted for ninety days.
No ownership transfer.
No secret deal.
Everything documented.
The audit began publicly.
Daniel called it a hostile takeover.
Then Victor Shaw contacted me.
The private equity buyer.
“I had no idea about the fraud,” he said.
“Convenient.”
“I can prove it.”
“How?”
“I recorded my meeting with Daniel.”
“Why?”
“Because he was asking me to buy shares he might not legally control.”
Victor sent the recording.
Daniel’s voice was clear.
“If Jennifer files before the baptism, we trigger Plan B.”
Victor asked:
“What’s Plan B?”
Daniel laughed.
“She won’t file.”
“How do you know?”
“Because after Lily was born, I changed one thing she still hasn’t noticed.”
May you like
My blood ran cold.
The recording ended there.
