Chapter 4 - Twelve Years Earlier, Daniel Had Believed Vanessa
Daniel remembered the night in fragments.
His mother had been dead three years.
Henry kept her journals in the study because he did not know what else to do with them.
Daniel and Vanessa were engaged.
Owen had just lost another job.
Everyone was tired of giving him chances.
That mattered.
Owen stood at the foot of the staircase now.
Daniel asked:
“What were you doing in Dad’s study?”
Owen looked at Vanessa.
“No.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Look at me.”
Owen did.
“I went in because Dad told me Vanessa had been there.”
Vanessa laughed.
“That is not what happened.”
“Then go first.”
Daniel stared at his wife.
Vanessa’s shoulders tightened.
She had spent twelve years expecting this conversation and somehow looked unprepared now that it existed.
“I was looking for something.”
“What?”
She looked at Daniel.
“Your mother’s journals.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“You told me you had never read them.”
“I hadn’t then.”
“Then.”
Vanessa closed her eyes briefly.
“I read part of one.”
“Why?”
She hesitated.
Not guilt.
Embarrassment.
“I wanted to know what she thought of you.”
Daniel frowned.
“Of me?”
“Of us.”
“She was dead before we met.”
“I know.”
“Then she couldn't have written about us.”
“No.”
Vanessa looked frustrated with herself.
“I wanted to know what kind of woman she thought you would marry.”
Owen looked away.
Daniel almost laughed.
“You broke into my father’s locked study to read my dead mother’s private journals because you wanted a review from somebody who never met you.”
“When you say it like that—”
“There is no better way to say it.”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
“You used to talk about her like she had already approved every decision you made.”
Daniel stopped.
That was true.
My mother would have loved this house.
Mom would have liked your laugh.
Mom always said I needed somebody direct.
Vanessa had lived beside a dead woman Daniel used as a blessing.
She continued.
“I wanted to know whether the version of her in your head matched anything she had written.”
“Did it?”
Vanessa looked down.
“Not always.”
“What did you find?”
“A passage about you.”
Owen interrupted.
“She tore it out.”
Vanessa spun toward him.
“I removed two pages.”
Daniel stared.
“From my mother’s journal.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because she wrote that you confused being needed with being loved.”
Daniel said nothing.
Vanessa continued quickly.
“It was years before me. About a girl in college.”
“Then why take it?”
“Because I knew exactly how you would read it.”
“How?”
“As a warning.”
“About you?”
“About us.”
Daniel stared.
He did not know whether to be angry at the invasion or embarrassed by how plausible her fear was.
Owen said:
“I caught her with the pages.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You came in looking for money.”
Daniel looked at Owen.
He did not deny it immediately.
That mattered.
“What?”
Owen rubbed his jaw.
“I came to talk to Dad.”
“That isn't what she said.”
“I know.”
“Were you looking for money?”
“Not that night.”
Vanessa’s expression sharpened.
“Not that night.”
Daniel heard it.
Owen sighed.
“I had borrowed money from Dad before.”
“Borrowed.”
“Taken and told him afterward.”
Daniel remembered.
Eight thousand dollars.
A restaurant investment.
Owen swore he would replace it.
He did, eventually.
After lying about it for two months.
That was why Daniel believed Vanessa when she screamed thief.
The old scene returned.
Daniel entering the study.
Vanessa crying.
Owen holding Margaret Bennett’s journal.
Loose pages on the carpet.
Vanessa saying:
He came in looking for your father’s cash.
Owen saying:
Ask her what she was doing first.
Henry storming in.
Daniel seeing the journal in Owen’s hands.
Owen refusing to hand it over.
Daniel saying:
Get out.
He remembered that clearly.
He looked at Owen.
“You could’ve told me.”
“I tried.”
“You said Vanessa was lying.”
“She was.”
“You did not tell me why she was lying.”
Owen’s face tightened.
“I was angry.”
“At who?”
“All of you.”
Daniel laughed.
“Useful.”
Owen looked toward Vanessa.
“She had those pages in her hand. I took the journal because I wanted you to see what she had done.”
“Why not hand it to me?”
“Because Dad told me to put it down.”
Henry had arrived.
He had looked at the scene.
At Vanessa.
At Owen.
At Daniel.
Then said:
Enough. Nobody touches Margaret’s things again.
Daniel remembered.
“What did Dad know?”
Owen’s face changed.
Vanessa looked away.
Daniel saw both.
“What did he know?”
May you like
Owen answered.
“More than he told you.”
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