Chapter 6 - THE THIRD DAUGHTER
I slapped him.
The sound cracked across the office.
Nobody moved.
Malcolm touched his cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“My husband did not have another daughter.”
“He did.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
Vanessa watched me with a strange expression.
Almost pity.
That made me angrier.
“Who is she?”
Malcolm looked toward the door.
“This isn’t the place.”
“You brought up my children. You finish it here.”
He sighed.
“Her name is Emily Shaw.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“How old?”
“Eleven.”
Daniel and I had been married eight years.
An eleven-year-old daughter would have existed before we met.
My anger shifted.
Not disappeared.
Changed.
“Did Daniel know about her?”
“Not until two years before he died.”
I felt dizzy.
Marcus pulled out a chair.
I sat.
Malcolm continued.
“Before you, Daniel dated a woman named Claire Shaw. The relationship ended badly. Claire moved away. She never told him she was pregnant.”
“Then how did he find out?”
“Emily got sick.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of sick?”
“Leukemia.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Daniel’s mother had died from cancer.
Daniel died from cancer.
And now a child I never knew existed had leukemia.
Malcolm said:
“Claire contacted Daniel because Emily needed a family medical history.”
I thought back two years before his death.
Daniel had started taking unexplained trips.
He told me they were consulting jobs.
Once, he was gone overnight.
He returned with a small stuffed rabbit.
When I asked why, he said a client had given it to him for Lily and Grace.
I suddenly knew.
“For Emily?”
Malcolm nodded.
“He wanted to tell you.”
“But he didn’t.”
“He was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of losing the life he had with you.”
That hurt.
Because Daniel had trusted me with his pain.
His diagnosis.
His fear of dying.
But not this.
“Where is Emily now?”
Malcolm looked down.
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“With her mother.”
“Does she know Daniel was her father?”
“Yes.”
I covered my face.
A child had lost the same man my daughters lost.
But she had lost him twice.
Once before knowing him.
Then again after finding him.
Marcus spoke.
“What does Emily have to do with the trust?”
Malcolm looked at me.
“Daniel created it after he discovered the foundation fraud. He began redirecting money Charles Carter had already stolen.”
“That’s still illegal.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he send it?”
“To legitimate medical bills.”
I stared.
“He returned the money?”
“Not to the foundation. To patients.”
“Then why create a trust?”
“Because one of those patients was Emily.”
My eyes filled.
Daniel had been trying to pay for his daughter’s treatment.
Malcolm continued.
“But that wasn’t the only reason.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Tell her the rest.”
He glared at her.
She smiled.
“The trust didn’t have three beneficiaries.”
I slowly looked at her.
“What?”
“It had four.”
Malcolm closed his eyes.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“One for Emily.”
“One for each of your twins.”
She paused.
“And one account Daniel created for Rachel Bennett.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
“Not you.”
My blood went cold.
“Then who?”
May you like
She looked directly at me.
“Daniel named another woman Rachel Bennett.”
