Chapter 7 - THE STORAGE UNIT
Police found Robert twelve minutes later.
He was alive.
Barely.
Someone had struck him in the head inside a storage facility in south Nashville and left him on the concrete behind a stack of old furniture.
The unit had been torn apart.
Boxes opened.
File cabinets emptied.
A metal lockbox was missing.
Daniel vanished.
By midnight, his phone was off.
His car was found near an office park.
His attorney claimed he did not know where Daniel was.
Megan claimed the same.
For the first time, Detective Reed stopped using cautious language.
“We need to locate your husband.”
“Do you think he attacked Robert?”
“We have surveillance footage showing a vehicle registered to Daniel entering the facility.”
I looked at Emma.
She was asleep.
Rebecca had arranged for security outside our hotel room.
“What was Robert looking for?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Can I see him?”
“He’s in surgery.”
I sat down.
Another hospital.
Another person hurt.
Another secret.
At 2:30 a.m., Reed called again.
The storage facility had cameras.
One captured Daniel entering at 8:52 p.m.
A second figure entered seventeen minutes later.
Not Linda.
A man.
Tall.
Baseball cap.
Face partly hidden.
“Who?”
“We’re working on it.”
“Daniel wasn’t alone?”
“Possibly not.”
At 6:15 a.m., Robert woke.
I spoke to him through a video call arranged by police because investigators did not want Emma and me moving around unnecessarily.
His face was bruised.
Bandage around his head.
His voice weak.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’ve said that enough.”
He almost smiled.
“Fair.”
“What was in the lockbox?”
He closed his eyes.
“My father’s ledgers.”
“About the trust?”
“Not only the trust.”
“What else?”
“Daniel’s company.”
I frowned.
“He didn’t work for that company when your father was alive.”
“Not Daniel’s employer. The Miller family company.”
I stared.
“I thought you sold it.”
“I did.”
Robert’s family had once owned a regional construction-supply business.
He told me it was sold before Daniel and I married.
“My father believed Daniel was stealing from the company when he was twenty-three.”
“The gambling debt.”
“That was only part.”
“How much?”
“We never proved it. Maybe two hundred thousand.”
I sat back.
“And your father kept ledgers?”
“He kept everything.”
“What does that have to do with Daniel now?”
Robert looked toward someone outside the camera.
Then lowered his voice.
“Because the money Daniel stole may not have been spent.”
“What?”
“My father suspected Daniel used it to buy early cryptocurrency through a friend.”
I blinked.
That was the last thing I expected.
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why does it matter?”
“Because the friend was arrested for fraud later. Daniel denied everything. Dad kept records of transfers, dates, account numbers.”
“And Daniel attacked you for papers from fifteen years ago?”
“Not just papers.”
“What else?”
Robert hesitated.
“There was a handwritten confession.”
My stomach tightened.
“From Daniel?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Linda.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
“She knew?”
“She helped cover the missing money.”
The entire family was built on secrets.
“Why didn’t your father go to police?”
“He wanted to protect Daniel.”
I almost laughed.
Everyone had been protecting Daniel.
His father.
His mother.
His grandfather.
Every rescue taught him there would be another rescue.
“What did Linda confess?”
“That she altered company records after discovering Daniel had transferred money.”
“Why?”
“She said she was saving her son.”
“And the trust?”
“My father changed it after that. He didn’t trust Daniel financially.”
“Why name me?”
“Because after meeting you, he told me you were the first person Daniel ever loved enough to become decent for.”
The words hurt.
Because perhaps for a while they had been true.
Robert’s eyes filled.
“I think Dad hoped you would save him.”
“I was his wife, Robert. Not his rehabilitation program.”
“I know.”
“Who attacked you?”
His expression changed.
“I didn’t see his face.”
“His?”
“Daniel was there.”
My pulse jumped.
“He attacked you?”
“No.”
“What?”
“I was already inside when Daniel came in. We argued.”
“About the lockbox?”
“Yes. He demanded it. I refused.”
“What happened?”
“Someone came up behind me.”
“The second man.”
“I think so.”
“Was Daniel working with him?”
Robert’s eyes hardened.
“That’s what I don’t know.”
I leaned closer.
“What happened after you were hit?”
“I remember falling. I remember Daniel shouting.”
“What did he shout?”
Robert frowned, concentrating.
“Something like, ‘That wasn’t the deal.’”
My skin prickled.
“Deal?”
“Yes.”
The attack might not have been Daniel’s plan.
That did not make him innocent.
It meant someone else was involved.
A nurse stepped into Robert’s room.
He looked tired.
“Sarah, there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“The man who helped Daniel with the money years ago had a son.”
I waited.
“His name is Paul Renner.”
The name hit me.
Daniel’s attorney.
“The lawyer?”
Robert nodded.
“Paul’s father was Daniel’s closest friend.”
My mind raced.
Paul had appeared at the hospital.
Paul had custody paperwork.
Paul may have known about old money.
The financial scheme.
The trust.
“Why would Paul help Daniel now?”
“Maybe he wasn’t helping.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
The call ended shortly after.
I immediately relayed everything to Detective Reed.
He already knew Paul’s father had a fraud conviction.
What he did not know was the connection to the Miller company.
By afternoon, investigators had another development.
Daniel’s work laptop had been remotely accessed from a motel outside Murfreesboro.
Police traced it.
The room was empty when they arrived.
But they found blood on a towel.
A shattered phone.
And a note.
It was addressed to me.
Reed read it over the phone.
Sarah, I know you think I’m a monster. Maybe I became one. But what happened to Emma was not supposed to happen the way it did. Paul knows everything. Do not trust him. Do not trust my mother. The money isn’t the reason. The trust isn’t the reason. Ask Dad what happened in Memphis in 2017.
I closed my eyes.
Another secret.
Always another secret.
“What happened in Memphis?”
Reed said, “We’re asking Robert.”
Five minutes later, Robert called me himself.
He sounded devastated.
“I hoped Daniel would never bring that up.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel was in Memphis for a construction conference.”
“So?”
“There was a car accident.”
My stomach tightened.
“He hurt someone?”
“A woman died.”
I stopped breathing.
“Was he driving?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Robert’s voice broke.
“He was in the passenger seat.”
“Who was driving?”
Silence.
“Robert.”
“A woman named Megan Wallace.”
My mind went blank.
“Megan?”
“The same Megan?”
“Yes.”
“That was nine years ago.”
“Yes.”
“You told me Daniel met her at work two years ago.”
“He lied.”
My mouth went dry.
“What happened after the crash?”
Robert whispered:
“They switched seats before police arrived.”
I stood so quickly the chair fell behind me.
“Who took the blame?”
“Daniel.”
I stared at the wall.
“Why?”
“Because Megan had been drinking. Daniel hadn’t. The victim’s family eventually settled a civil case. Daniel’s record was reduced after a plea.”
I had known Daniel had an old reckless-driving conviction.
He told me he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Another lie.
“Why would he protect Megan?”
Robert closed his eyes.
“Because she was pregnant.”
My stomach twisted.
“Pregnant with whose baby?”
He looked directly at the camera.
“Daniel’s.”
I could barely speak.
“What happened to the baby?”
Robert’s face crumpled.
“She gave birth to a boy.”
I felt the room tilt.
“Where is he?”
Robert whispered the answer.
“He’s alive.”
I gripped the phone.
“How old?”
“Eight.”
My daughter had a brother.
My husband had another child.
May you like
And somehow, despite everything I had already learned, Robert’s next sentence still managed to destroy whatever remained of my marriage.
“Daniel has been supporting him in secret since before you two got married.”
