Chapter 7 - Our Marriage Wasn’t an Accident
Rachel thought she had prepared herself for another lie.
She had not prepared herself for the truth.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“Can she go downstairs?”
“No.”
“Rachel.”
“She’s already the target of strangers taking pictures through windows. She stays with me.”
Sophie climbed onto the bed beside her mother.
Daniel nodded once.
“Claire investigated Arden for almost a year before she disappeared. During that time she kept mentioning a woman named Rachel Morgan.”
Rachel’s maiden name.
Her stomach dropped.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“I never met Claire.”
“I know.”
“Then why did she know my name?”
“She believed you had something.”
“What?”
“I didn’t know.”
Rachel laughed without humor.
“So you found me.”
“Yes.”
“You dated me because your missing wife had my name in some investigation?”
“At first.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
Rachel felt physically sick.
“At first?”
“I watched you for two weeks.”
“You followed me.”
“Yes.”
“You followed my child.”
“I never went near Sophie.”
“You photographed her daycare?”
“No.”
Rachel threw the photograph at him.
“Then who did?”
Daniel picked it up.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was trying to find out why Claire cared about you.”
“And then?”
“I met you.”
Rachel’s eyes burned.
“Don’t.”
“I fell in love with you.”
“Don’t use that right now.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“You built our marriage on surveillance.”
“No. I started with a lie. I stayed because it became real.”
Rachel stood.
“We’re leaving.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
“If you walk out with Sophie, whoever sent that photo knows you have the drive.”
“Then I’ll go to the police.”
“Dunn is police.”
Rachel stopped.
A car horn sounded once outside.
Sophie went to the curtain.
“Mom.”
Rachel pulled her back.
“What?”
“That car.”
A black SUV sat across the street.
Sophie’s voice became small.
“That’s the car Grandma got into yesterday.”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“What?”
Sophie nodded.
“I saw her from my window.”
Daniel was already moving downstairs.
Rachel followed.
The SUV pulled away.
On the porch sat a white envelope.
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
A list of names.
Claire Hale.
Margaret Hale.
Daniel Hale.
Rachel Morgan.
And beneath Rachel’s name:
SOPHIE MORGAN — PRIMARY.
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