Chapter 5 - The First Lie Daniel Could Not Explain
Daniel called Olivia eleven times before she answered.
I know because he stood in the hallway counting each ring beneath his breath.
When she finally picked up, he put the call on speaker without asking anyone's permission.
"Where are you?"
Olivia's voice came through the phone sharp and defensive.
"Why?"
"Did you take Emma's notebook?"
Silence.
Daniel looked at me.
"Olivia?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Her study was broken into."
"That is not my problem."
"You left the house four minutes before she found it missing."
"So now I'm being tracked in my own home?"
Jonah raised an eyebrow.
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Just answer the question."
"I already did."
"No, you avoided it."
Olivia inhaled sharply.
"I went to get coffee because your ex-wife showed up with police officers and a private investigator on the morning after our wedding."
"Where are you now?"
"Driving."
"Come back."
"No."
"Olivia."
"I said no."
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the screen.
My mother looked almost impressed.
"Strong marriage," she said.
I gave her a warning look.
"What?"
"Mom."
"I am under a lot of stress."
Daniel looked at me.
"She did not take your notebook."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you."
"Correct."
I pointed toward the forced drawer.
"That's why I am not making claims without evidence."
His face tightened because he knew exactly what I meant.
He had been making claims without evidence about me for months.
Too emotional.
Too suspicious.
Too distracted by pregnancy.
Too resentful of his success.
Every concern I raised became a flaw in my personality.
Now evidence was sitting in front of him, and suddenly he wanted caution.
Jonah photographed the red message.
"Was this paper already here?"
"No."
"Do you recognize the handwriting?"
I looked at it.
"No."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Let me see."
Jonah held it up.
Daniel's expression changed.
I noticed immediately.
"You recognize it."
"No."
"You just reacted."
"I'm reacting because someone broke into our house."
"Your house," my mother corrected.
Daniel ignored her.
I studied his face.
"Whose handwriting is it?"
"I said I don't know."
He walked away too quickly.
That was answer enough.
Jonah looked at me.
I nodded once.
We would come back to it.
The police took a report.
While the officers completed the report, Daniel stood alone in the dining room staring at the wedding portrait Olivia had placed above the entry table.
I watched him from the hallway.
Yesterday, that photograph had probably looked like victory.
Today, it looked like a question.
One officer asked him when he had last entered my study.
"Weeks ago."
"Did you know the drawer was locked?"
"No."
"Did your wife?"
Daniel glanced toward the kitchen where Olivia stood.
"I don't know."
Olivia heard him.
"Why would I know whether Emma locks drawers?"
The officer wrote something down.
Olivia looked offended by the existence of the notebook in his hand.
"Are you writing that as if I did something?"
"I'm writing what people say."
"Well, write that she is obsessed with making me look guilty."
The officer looked at me.
I said nothing.
He looked back at Olivia.
"I'm not writing opinions."
Her face flushed.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
"Olivia, stop."
She turned on him.
"Do not tell me to stop in front of her."
"Then stop giving the police reasons to keep asking questions."
The room went silent.
Olivia stared at him as if he had betrayed her.
I knew that look.
I had worn it often enough.
The difference was that Daniel seemed to recognize it now.
He immediately softened.
"That is not what I meant."
"I know exactly what you meant."
She grabbed her coat from the chair.
"You think because she is pregnant, everyone has to protect her."
I felt my hand move instinctively to my stomach.
Daniel looked at me.
Then at Olivia.
"This has nothing to do with her being pregnant."
"It has everything to do with it."
Olivia's voice cracked.
"She walks into every room and everyone decides she is the victim before she opens her mouth."
There it was.
Not envy of my career.
Not envy of my house.
Resentment of sympathy itself.
I looked at her and understood that she had built an entire story in which my pain was an advantage over her.
That kind of thinking had no bottom.
She left through the front door.
Daniel did not follow her.
He stood in the hallway while the door closed.
Then he looked at me.
"Was she always like this with you?"
I almost laughed.
"You never asked."
They documented the forced drawer and missing notebook.
Because there were no clear signs of entry from outside, they treated everyone with access to the house as potentially relevant.
Daniel hated that sentence.
Olivia hated it more when she finally returned forty minutes later with two untouched coffees in a cardboard tray.
The cups were cold.
Jonah noticed.
So did I.
She set them on the kitchen counter.
"Happy now?"
Daniel stared at her.
"Where were you?"
"I told you."
"The nearest coffee shop is six minutes away."
Her eyes flashed.
"I drove around."
"For forty minutes?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I needed space from this insanity."
She pointed at me.
"She is turning you against me one day after our wedding."
I said nothing.
Daniel looked at the coffee cups.
Then at her purse.
"Open it."
Olivia went still.
"Excuse me?"
"Open your purse."
"No."
"If you don't have the notebook, open it."
Her face changed completely.
Not hurt.
Not offended.
Furious.
"You do not get to search my things."
"Then the police can ask."
The officer nearest the doorway raised a hand.
"Nobody is searching anything without consent or legal authority."
Olivia looked vindicated.
Daniel looked humiliated.
I looked at her purse.
It was too small to hold the notebook.
Whatever she had done during those forty minutes, she had not brought it back.
My phone rang.
Mara.
I stepped into the dining room.
"Tell me something good."
"I have something useful."
"I'll take it."
"We pulled your travel records from six years ago."
I closed my eyes.
"Denver."
"You flew to Denver three days before the supposed transfer agreement was signed."
"And I stayed nine days."
"Correct."
"So the signature is impossible."
"Not by itself."
"Why not?"
"Because the document claims you signed before a mobile notary in Chicago, but we still need to prove you were physically in Denver at that exact time."
"Hotel records."
"Already requested."
I looked through the doorway.
Daniel and Olivia were arguing in low voices.
"Mara, Daniel recognized the handwriting on the note."
"The threat?"
"The red note in my study."
"And he denied it?"
"Immediately."
"Interesting."
"Also, the original prototype notebook is missing."
Silence.
Then Mara swore.
"Tell me you scanned it."
"Most of it."
"Most?"
"The last twenty pages were not scanned."
"What's in them?"
I thought back.
Late-stage revisions.
Notes from meetings with my father.
And one page Daniel had asked me to sign after a patent lawyer meeting.
I had written a sentence in the margin because I did not understand the assignment language.
I remember showing it to my father.
His reply had been blunt.
Do not sign another version until I review it.
"There may be notes about the original patent assignment."
Mara was quiet.
"Then whoever took it knew what mattered."
A chill moved through me.
"Olivia would not know that unless Daniel told her."
"Or unless she has seen the diligence file."
"She shouldn't have access to that."
"She shouldn't have been paid two point four million dollars either."
I rubbed my forehead.
"What else?"
Mara hesitated.
"Bennett Strategic Partners was formed eleven months ago."
"Okay."
"Its registered organizer was not Olivia."
"Who was it?"
"A corporate services firm."
"That sounds normal."
"It is."
Her voice lowered.
"But the mailing address on the first filing belongs to Vantage Meridian LLC."
The same company receiving the money.
"Who owns Vantage Meridian?"
"We don't know yet."
"Can you find out?"
"Jonah can."
I looked toward him.
He was speaking with one of the officers.
"Do it."
"Already did."
Mara paused.
"Emma, there is something else."
"What?"
"The board called an emergency session for tonight."
"About Daniel?"
"About the acquisition and the disputed IP."
"Am I invited?"
"Not yet."
"Then why does it matter?"
"Because Northstar asked the board to identify every person who had access to the transfer agreement you say is forged."
I waited.
"Daniel's office produced an access log."
"And?"
"The document was uploaded to their data room eight weeks ago from an account assigned to Olivia Bennett."
I closed my eyes.
Eight weeks ago.
Two weeks before Daniel filed for divorce.
"Does Daniel know?"
"The board sent him the same log ten minutes ago."
I looked through the doorway again.
Daniel was staring at his phone.
Olivia stood across from him.
Neither was speaking.
Then Daniel looked up.
His face had gone pale.
"Olivia."
She did not answer.
"Why did you upload this?"
She folded her arms.
"Upload what?"
He turned the phone toward her.
"The intellectual property release."
Her eyes moved across the screen.
Then she smiled.
It was not the sweet smile she used on me.
It was colder.
"Because you told me to."
Daniel stared at her.
"No, I didn't."
The room changed.
My mother stopped breathing loudly.
Jonah lowered his phone just enough to look over it.
Even the officer near the entryway glanced toward them.
Olivia's smile disappeared.
"Yes, you did."
"I have never seen that file before this morning."
"Daniel."
"Don't."
His voice cracked like a whip.
"Do not lie to me right now."
Olivia's face hardened.
"You want to do this in front of her?"
Daniel looked at me.
Then back at his wife of less than twenty-four hours.
"I want to know why a document with Emma's forged signature was uploaded from your account."
Olivia went completely still.
Then she said the sentence that changed everything.
"Because if she had kept her rights to the company, you never would have been able to sell it."
Daniel stared at her.
I did too.
Olivia seemed to realize what she had said only after the words were already in the room.
And for the first time since this began, I understood something Daniel did not.
May you like
Olivia had not entered his life because she wanted what I had.
She had entered his life because she already knew what I owned.
