Chapter 6
I couldn’t move.
People around me were talking.
The judge was saying something.
Michael had his hand on my shoulder.
None of it reached me.
Ryan killed her first.
Emma.
My wife.
Lily’s mother.
Dead for almost five years.
Killed in what police had called a single-car accident on a wet highway.
“What did she mean?”
Michael said something.
I turned to Detective Ruiz.
“What did she mean?”
Ruiz looked toward the courtroom doors.
“Daniel, not here.”
“No.”
I stepped toward her.
“She said Ryan killed Emma.”
“I heard her.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect something?”
“Not until this morning.”
My stomach dropped.
“What happened this morning?”
Ruiz glanced at Michael.
“Come with me.”
We moved into a private conference room.
I barely waited for the door to close.
“Tell me.”
Ruiz put a file on the table.
“We searched Ryan’s vehicle and belongings after his arrest.”
“And?”
“We found the wooden memory box taken from Lily’s room.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why did he steal it?”
“There was a flash drive inside.”
“I know.”
“You said it contained family videos.”
“It does.”
“It contains more than that.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“A video recorded by Emma.”
My heartbeat became painful.
“What kind of video?”
Ruiz turned her laptop toward me.
“Before you watch it, I need you to understand we don’t know the entire context.”
“Play it.”
“Daniel—”
“Play it.”
She did.
Emma appeared on the screen.
Alive.
My breath left my body.
She was sitting in our old apartment.
Hair tied back.
No makeup.
Wearing the blue sweatshirt I used to steal from her.
The timestamp was three days before her death.
She looked frightened.
“Daniel, if you’re watching this, I probably finally worked up the courage to tell you everything.”
My hands began shaking.
Emma looked away from the camera.
“I made a mistake.”
I closed my eyes for half a second.
Then forced them open.
“A few months ago, I met someone through Noah.”
My stomach tightened.
“He said he could help Noah get clean. His name is Ryan Mercer.”
I stared at Ruiz.
Emma continued.
“At first I thought he was just helping. Then he started asking about Dad’s estate. About my trust. About Lily.”
My blood turned cold.
“He knows things he shouldn’t know.”
Emma leaned closer to the camera.
“I think Noah owes him money.”
That made sense.
Noah’s addiction.
His disappearances.
The constant debt.
Emma continued.
“Ryan told me if Noah doesn’t pay, someone else will.”
Her voice trembled.
“He threatened Lily.”
I covered my mouth.
“He said accidents happen all the time.”
The video blurred through my tears.
“I haven’t told Daniel because Daniel will go after him. And Ryan wants that. He wants Daniel angry.”
Emma took a breath.
“I’m going to the police tomorrow.”
The recording ended.
I stared at the black screen.
Tomorrow.
But Emma never made it to the police.
She died that night.
“What happened to this video?” I whispered.
Ruiz said, “We believe Emma saved it on the flash drive and hid it in the memory box.”
“How did I never see it?”
“There are multiple folders. It was inside a password-protected directory.”
“What password?”
“Lily’s birth date.”
Of course.
I pressed both hands against the table.
“Why did Ryan know about it?”
“We don’t know.”
“Melissa did.”
Ruiz nodded slowly.
“Possibly.”
I looked at her.
“What else did you find?”
She hesitated.
That terrified me.
“Ryan had photographs of Emma.”
“What kind?”
“Surveillance-style.”
My chest tightened.
“Taken before her death?”
“Yes.”
“He was watching her.”
“It appears so.”
“Five years ago?”
“Yes.”
“And nobody knew?”
“We didn’t have this evidence then.”
I stood and paced.
“The crash.”
Ruiz nodded.
“We’re reopening the case.”
“Tell me what happened that night.”
I already knew the official version.
Emma left her mother’s house after dinner.
Rain.
A curve.
Her car left the highway and struck a tree.
No skid marks.
No witnesses.
She died before paramedics arrived.
But now every detail felt different.
“Was another car involved?”
“We’re reviewing old evidence.”
“Was Ryan there?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Melissa said he killed her.”
“That statement matters, but it’s not proof.”
“Then question her.”
“We are.”
“Question Ryan.”
“We are.”
I stopped pacing.
“What does this have to do with Lily’s money?”
Ruiz opened another file.
“Emma’s father left each grandchild a substantial inheritance.”
I frowned.
“Lily has the trust.”
“Yes. But Emma also inherited property.”
“I sold most of it after she died.”
“Not all of it.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t understand.”
“Did Emma ever tell you about land in Arizona?”
“No.”
Ruiz turned a document toward me.
Forty-six acres outside Phoenix.
Owned by a family trust.
Emma’s name was on it.
After her death, her share transferred to Lily.
My eyes widened.
“I’ve never seen this.”
“Neither had you because the property wasn’t included in the estate documents you handled locally.”
“What is it worth?”
“Today?”
Ruiz paused.
“Potentially several million dollars.”
I sat down.
Phoenix.
The bus ticket.
It finally connected.
“They were taking Lily there because of the land.”
“Possibly.”
“Why would they need Lily physically?”
“That’s one of the questions.”
Michael, who had been silent, leaned forward.
“If the trust has unusual provisions, guardians might have authority over property transactions.”
Ruiz nodded.
“We’re getting the complete trust documents.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“So Melissa targeted me because of Lily.”
“It increasingly looks that way.”
“She knew about Emma before she met me.”
“We need to prove that.”
I looked at the frozen image of Emma on the laptop.
“She knew Ryan.”
“Yes.”
“Ryan knew Emma.”
“Yes.”
“And Melissa married me.”
“Yes.”
The horror of it settled in.
My marriage wasn’t a betrayal that developed over time.
It may never have been real at all.
Melissa hadn’t fallen out of love with me.
She had never loved me.
I was an assignment.
A doorway.
A signature.
A father standing between them and millions of dollars.
My phone rang.
Mom.
I answered.
“Daniel?”
“Are you with Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Put her on.”
“Daddy!”
The sound of her voice nearly broke me.
“Hey, bug.”
“Grandma said I can see you now.”
I closed my eyes.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Right now if you want.”
“Yes!”
For the first time all day, I smiled.
“I’m coming.”
Before hanging up, Lily said, “Daddy?”
“What?”
“Are we going home?”
I looked at Ruiz.
At the evidence.
At Emma’s face on the laptop.
“No, sweetheart.”
Not yet.
Because I no longer knew what might be hidden there.
“Grandma’s house is safer tonight.”
“Okay.”
Then she whispered, “Can Bunny come?”
My heart twisted.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Bunny needs to help the police.”
She thought about that.
“Because Melissa was bad?”
I struggled with the answer.
“Because Melissa made bad choices.”
Lily was quiet.
Then she said, “I knew she didn’t love me.”
I couldn’t speak.
A child should never have to know that.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you too.”
When I reached my mother’s house, Lily ran toward me before the door was fully open.
This time nobody stopped me.
I dropped to my knees.
She hit my chest so hard we almost fell backward.
“Daddy!”
I held her.
I didn’t care who watched.
I didn’t care how long.
I breathed in the smell of her shampoo.
I felt her small heart beating against mine.
“I told you I’d come back.”
“You promised.”
“Yes.”
My mother stood in the doorway crying.
That night Lily refused to sleep alone.
I lay beside her in my childhood bedroom.
She curled against me.
After twenty minutes, I thought she was asleep.
Then she whispered, “Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Melissa kill Mommy?”
My eyes opened.
“Why would you ask that?”
Lily turned toward me.
“Because she said Mommy should have listened.”
My entire body went still.
“When did she say that?”
“When she was mad.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Lily thought.
“She said, ‘Your mommy didn’t listen either.’”
My mouth went dry.
“Anything else?”
“She said bad things happen to girls who make trouble.”
I sat up.
“Lily, did Melissa ever talk about Mommy’s accident?”
She nodded.
“How?”
“She said Mommy was scared before she died.”
I stared at her.
Nobody knew that.
At least I thought nobody did.
“Did she say why?”
Lily yawned.
“She said Mommy saw Ryan.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“In the road.”
I leaned closer.
“What road?”
But Lily’s eyes were already closing.
“Lily?”
She murmured something.
I barely heard it.
“What did you say?”
Her voice was soft.
“She said Mommy tried to get away.”
Then she fell asleep.
I stayed awake until sunrise.
At 7:12 a.m., Detective Ruiz called.
Her voice sounded different.
Urgent.
“We found something in the old accident photos.”
I sat up.
“What?”
“There’s damage to the rear of Emma’s car that investigators originally attributed to the tree impact.”
“And?”
“Our reconstruction specialist disagrees.”
My heart pounded.
“What caused it?”
“Another vehicle.”
I stood.
“Ryan?”
“We don’t know.”
Ruiz continued.
“But we pulled old highway traffic-camera archives from a private contractor.”
“You have video?”
“Not of the crash.”
My hope collapsed.
“But we have footage from twelve minutes before.”
“Of what?”
“Emma’s car.”
I waited.
“And a black pickup following her.”
“Whose pickup?”
May you like
Ruiz went silent for one second.
Then said, “It was registered to Ryan Mercer.”
