Chapter 10 - The Accusation Against Daniel
Daniel stared at Charles as if he had spoken another language.
“Me?”
Charles laughed softly.
“You really thought Rachel spent months secretly tracking your company because she trusted you?”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“You’re lying.”
“Then read the second journal.”
“Where is it?”
Charles said nothing.
Police arrived minutes later.
Marcus turned over Charles’s phone.
Charles refused further questioning without counsel.
Before leaving, he looked at Daniel.
“Ask Rebecca why Rachel stopped sleeping in your bedroom during the last month of her life.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Rebecca looked away.
After the police left, Daniel confronted her.
“What did he mean?”
Rebecca stood by the window.
“Rachel was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“She believed someone was using your identity.”
Daniel frowned.
Rebecca explained.
Rachel had discovered emails sent from Daniel’s private account while he was physically somewhere else.
Contracts had been signed digitally in his name.
Security logs showed his credentials accessing buildings he had never entered.
At first, Rachel believed Daniel was lying.
She wondered if he had a second life.
Then she found something stranger.
Voice recordings.
Phone calls in which someone sounded almost exactly like Daniel.
Not identical.
But close enough to fool people who did not know him intimately.
Daniel felt chilled.
“Who was pretending to be me?”
“She never figured it out.”
Marcus looked thoughtful.
“Someone with access to his recordings, schedules, signatures, passwords.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Rachel began sleeping in the guest room because she was documenting Daniel’s movements.”
Daniel remembered those weeks.
Rachel had said she was restless and did not want to wake him.
He had believed her.
Rebecca continued.
“She was trying to prove that Daniel could not have made the calls attributed to him.”
“So she was protecting me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Charles say she was investigating me?”
“Because technically she was.”
Daniel ran one hand through his hair.
“Where is the second journal?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“I may know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Rachel kept two sets of records.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought the bank notebook was the second one.”
“Where did she keep the other?”
“In Lily’s nursery.”
Daniel froze.
“The old nursery?”
Rebecca nodded.
After Rachel died, Daniel had closed that room.
When Lily became older, she moved across the hall.
The original nursery had remained untouched except for occasional cleaning.
Daniel went upstairs.
He opened the door.
Dust floated in the light.
The crib was gone, but the rocking chair remained.
Rachel’s old bookshelf stood against the wall.
Rebecca walked toward the wooden alphabet decorations above the shelves.
She removed the letter L.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Empty.
Daniel stared.
Someone had already taken the journal.
Then Lily appeared in the doorway.
She was holding her stuffed rabbit.
“What are you looking for?”
Daniel crouched.
“A book Mommy hid.”
Lily thought for a moment.
“The blue one?”
Everyone turned toward her.
Daniel’s heart raced.
“You saw it?”
Lily nodded.
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“Where is it?”
Lily pointed toward her bedroom.
“I took it.”
Daniel followed her.
She reached beneath her bed and pulled out a plastic art box.
Inside were crayons, stickers, drawings, and beneath them, a small blue notebook.
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
Rachel’s handwriting covered the first page.
He turned to the final entry.
The date was the night before she died.
If Daniel reads this, he needs to know the truth about Nora.
Daniel looked up sharply.
Then he continued.
May you like
Nora is not working for Margaret.
Nora is working against her.
