HE CHOSE HIS WIFE OVER HIS MOTHER - THEN THE BABY MONITOR EXPOSED THE SECRET SHE WOULD KILL TO BURY

Daniel did not yell.

That frightened Emily more than yelling would have.

He sat in the chair by the window and read Thomas Hayes's letter again, his face hard and empty.

"Your father died on one of our sites."

"Yes."

"And you knew my father because of it."

"Yes."

"Before you met me."

"Yes."

He looked at her. "Was meeting me an accident?"

Emily flinched.

"Daniel-"

"Answer me."

"Yes. It was an accident. I was working for a forensic accounting firm when your company came up in an old insurance file. I had spent years trying to understand why Dad's death never made sense. Your father agreed to meet me privately. Then he died before we could meet again."

"And a year later you met me at a charity dinner."

"I didn't know you would be there."

"But you knew who I was."

"The second you introduced yourself."

Daniel stood so fast the chair hit the wall.

"You should have told me."

"I was scared you would think exactly what you're thinking now."

"What am I supposed to think?"

"That I used you. I didn't. I fell in love with you, and every month I waited made telling you harder. Then your mother started asking strange questions after Mia was born. She asked whether I had ever worked in claims investigations. She knew. Somehow she knew who I was."

Daniel turned away.

His phone rang.

Ortiz.

"We pulled Evan's financials," she said. "He has been receiving monthly payments from a consulting company called North Lake Risk Group. Same company named in one of your father's audio recordings."

"Who owns it?"

"A holding company. We're tracing it. But there's more. Evan's lawyer got him released pending charges on the arson investigation."

Daniel stared at the wall. "Already?"

"We didn't have enough to hold him on the old case, and the marina footage doesn't show him throwing the bottles. We found accelerant residue on his sleeve, but his lawyer says he helped someone with a generator earlier."

"So he's out."

"Yes. Which means you do not go anywhere alone."

Daniel looked at the memory card Claire had given him.

"We still have Dad's dashcam."

"Bring it to me. Don't plug it into anything."

Too late.

The laptop on the desk chimed.

Emily turned.

A new device had logged into the fake cloud account where she stored the copy of Thomas's drive.

"That's impossible," she whispered.

"What?"

"Someone has the password."