Chapter 6 - DANIEL FINALLY CAME TO MALIBU
Daniel arrived shortly before sunset.
Claire saw his car through the security camera.
“Do you want me to call someone?”
“No.”
I wanted one conversation.
Not to save the marriage.
To understand how thoroughly I had misunderstood it.
Daniel stood outside until I opened the door.
He looked exhausted.
“Can I come in?”
“No.”
He glanced behind me.
“So this is it?”
“This is what?”
“You just leave?”
I almost admired the audacity.
“Your mother demanded money and threw my luggage at me.”
“She was scared.”
“You told me to pay her.”
“I was trying to prevent a fight.”
“You always prevent fights by asking me to surrender.”
Daniel looked away.
I held up the financing application.
His face fell.
“Did you sign this?”
“No.”
“Did your mother?”
His silence answered.
I felt sick.
“She forged my signature?”
“She thought—”
I slammed the folder shut.
“Be very careful what you say next.”
Daniel swallowed.
“She thought because we were married, eventually you’d agree.”
“Eventually?”
“We were going to tell you once the business stabilized.”
“So you tried to put debt against my house first and ask permission later.”
“No money was released.”
“That isn’t the defense you think it is.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Emily, I screwed up.”
“Yes.”
“I was desperate.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you I’d lost almost everything.”
That made me stop.
“What do you mean everything?”
His eyes filled with something I hadn’t seen all day.
Fear.
“The company isn’t just struggling.”
“How bad?”
He looked toward the driveway.
“Bad.”
Then Claire appeared behind me holding her phone.
“Emily.”
Something in her voice made Daniel tense.
She handed me the phone.
“Our attorney just sent this.”
I read the first page.
Then the second.
The company’s liabilities were enormous.
But that wasn’t what made my stomach turn.
There was a list of recent attempted collateral.
Linda’s house.
Daniel’s business assets.
My Malibu property.
And one additional asset I recognized immediately.
An investment account my father had left me.
Daniel had tried to reach that too.
I slowly looked up.
He knew exactly what I had discovered.
“Emily—”
May you like
I closed the door.
This time, I locked it.
