Chapter 9 - THE OTHER FAMILY
Rachel warned me not to contact Natalie.
I listened.
For six hours.
Then Natalie contacted me.
At 10:18 the next morning, an email arrived.
SUBJECT: I THINK YOU DESERVE THE TRUTH.
My hands went cold.
The message contained only a phone number and one sentence.
DANIEL DOESN'T KNOW I'M CONTACTING YOU.
Rachel insisted on being present when I called.
Natalie answered immediately.
"Claire?"
"Yes."
Her voice trembled.
"I'm sorry."
I closed my eyes.
"Is your son Daniel's?"
Silence.
Then a quiet answer.
"Yes."
No dramatic music.
No shattered glass.
No screaming.
Just one word.
Yes.
It broke twelve years of memories into pieces.
"How old is he?"
"Five."
I calculated.
Daniel and I had been married seven years when Natalie became pregnant.
Noah had been two.
"How long?"
"The relationship?"
"Yes."
"About eighteen months."
Rachel wrote silently.
I forced myself to continue.
"Did he tell you we were separated?"
"At first."
I laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
"I found out later."
"And you stayed."
"For a while."
Her voice broke.
"I'm not proud of it."
I had expected to hate her.
Instead, I was too tired.
"What is your son's name?"
"Caleb."
I looked out the window.
"Does Daniel see him?"
"Once or twice a month."
The sentence hurt in a place I wasn't prepared for.
Daniel had skipped Lily's school concert last spring because of a "client dinner."
He had missed Noah's soccer semifinal because Bennett Holdings had an emergency.
How many emergencies had been Caleb?
"Does Margaret know?"
Natalie laughed once.
"Margaret arranged the apartment."
I closed my eyes.
Of course she knew.
"Vanessa?"
"Yes."
Everyone knew.
Except me.
My husband's whole family had sat at my anniversary table eating food I made while carrying the truth of another child between them.
And Vanessa had slapped me.
The humiliation suddenly became almost unbearable.
Rachel asked permission to speak.
"Natalie, why are you contacting Claire now?"
Natalie was quiet.
"Because Margaret called me yesterday."
"What did she want?"
"She wanted me to sign something saying Daniel never provided financial support for Caleb."
"Why?"
"She said lawyers were going through accounts."
Rachel and I exchanged a look.
"Did you sign it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because it isn't true."
Natalie inhaled.
"And because I'm done lying for them."
She agreed to send records.
Messages.
Bank transfers.
Photos.
Proof that Daniel had maintained a relationship with Caleb.
Then she told us something I hadn't expected.
"Claire, Daniel tried to end things with his family last year."
I frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"He said he wanted to tell you everything."
My pulse changed.
"When?"
"Last October."
"What happened?"
"Margaret threatened him."
"With what?"
Natalie paused.
"She said if he exposed the financial records, she would make sure he lost you, the children, and his job."
I almost laughed.
"He lost those anyway."
"I know."
There was sympathy in her voice.
I didn't want it.
"Daniel made his choices."
"Yes."
Natalie didn't defend him.
That mattered.
Before we ended the call, she said one final thing.
"There's something else."
I braced myself.
"What?"
"Margaret doesn't control Bennett Holdings alone."
"Who else?"
"I don't know his full role."
"Whose role?"
"Frederick Sloan."
The attorney who created the fake trust.
Natalie lowered her voice.
"Daniel was terrified of him."
"Why?"
"Because Sloan kept something called the red ledger."
My skin prickled.
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
"But Daniel once told me that if the red ledger ever surfaced, his mother wouldn't be worried about bankruptcy."
"What would she be worried about?"
May you like
Natalie hesitated.
"Prison."
