Chapter 4: The Number That Lied
For three seconds, I couldn't understand what Vanessa had said.
Then I turned toward my wife.
Danielle stood beside the sofa, one hand pressed against her mouth. Her face had gone completely white.
“That's impossible,” I whispered.
Vanessa shook her head, tears running down her cheeks.
“I saw the number myself. It was Danielle's number. The second message came from her account.””
Danielle lowered her hand.
“You're lying.””
“I swear I'm not.””
“You've been lying since you walked into my house.””
“I know how this sounds, but—”
“Then stop talking and explain it!””
Danielle's voice shattered on the last word.
Officer Brooks raised her hand, positioning herself between them.
“Everyone needs to step back. We are not going to establish anything by shouting.””
I barely heard her.
I was staring at Danielle, searching for something familiar in her face. The woman who had sat beside Lily's hospital bed. The woman who had called me fifty-one times. The woman who had spent the last three days looking at me as though my absence had killed something inside her that could never be repaired.
“You sent that message?”” I asked.
Danielle stared at me.
“You actually believe that?””
“I don't know what to believe anymore.””
She took a step backward as if I'd struck her.
“Your daughter died waiting for you to answer her, Marcus. I was holding her hand when she stopped breathing. I was begging her to stay. And now you're standing in front of me asking whether I sent a message threatening her?””
“I didn't say I believed it!””
“You asked me.””
Her eyes filled.
“You asked me if I could do something like that to our little girl.””
I looked away.
The truth was that I no longer knew how to trust my own judgment. I'd trusted Vanessa when she told me my marriage was already over. I'd trusted myself when I decided my affair was harmless. I'd trusted the comforting lie that Lily was too young to understand what was happening.
Every one of those decisions had been wrong.
Officer Brooks examined the tablet again.
“Mr. Reed, did you receive any messages from your wife on Friday afternoon?””
“I didn't see any.””
“That's not what I asked.””
I pulled out my phone and opened Danielle's conversation.
There were dozens of missed calls, but no message from her containing the words Vanessa had described.
“I don't see anything.””
“Your wife may have sent it from another device,” Officer Brooks said.
“Or the displayed sender information may not accurately identify the person who sent it. We need the original device records before drawing conclusions.””
Danielle folded her arms tightly across her chest.
“I was at the hospital. My phone never left my hand.””
Vanessa wiped her cheeks.
“Then how did the message come from your number?””
“I don't know!””
“Maybe someone had access to your account.””
Danielle stared at her.
“Who?””
Vanessa looked at me.
That small movement was enough to make my stomach turn.
“Don't look at me,” I said.
“I didn't say anything.””
“You didn't have to.””
Officer Brooks took a slow breath.
“Ms. Vanessa, you said you saw the message while you were in Savannah. Tell me exactly what happened.””
Vanessa rubbed her palms against her jeans.
“We were in the hotel room Friday afternoon. Marcus was taking a shower. His phone was on the desk, and I was sitting on the bed.””
She glanced at me.
“It kept lighting up. I picked it up because I thought it was one of his work messages.””
“You said you only picked it up to silence it,” I reminded her.
“I know. I should have told you everything before.””
“Tell us now.””
She swallowed.
“I saw a notification from Lily's account. It said she wanted to talk to her father. I opened the message because I thought it was something urgent.””
“You opened my daughter's messages?””
“I was worried she might be sick!””
“You didn't know she was sick.””
“I knew she was your daughter!””
The words stopped me.
Vanessa pressed her fingers to her forehead.
“I saw the first message. The one telling her not to call again. I thought you had sent it.””
“I didn't.””
“I know that now.””
“Why would you think I'd send something like that?””
She hesitated.
“Because I was angry with you.””
I stared at her.
“What does that have to do with anything?””
“You'd been talking about ending things with me. You said you couldn't leave Danielle because of Lily. You said you needed more time.””
“And?””
“And I was tired of being the woman you kept waiting.””
For a moment, the room became painfully quiet.
Then Danielle gave a bitter laugh.
“You were tired of waiting?””
Vanessa looked at her.
“I didn't mean—”
“My daughter waited for her father while she was dying.””
Danielle's voice trembled.
“You were tired of waiting for a man who belonged to another woman. Lily was waiting for her father to tell her he still loved her.””
Vanessa dropped her gaze.
Officer Brooks continued questioning her.
“What did you do after you saw the first message?””
“I put the phone down.””
“Did you send anything?””
“No.””
“Did you open Lily's tablet?””
Vanessa shook her head.
“I didn't know the tablet was in the room until later.””
“Later when?””
“When we were packing to leave.””
She looked toward my suitcase.
“I found it inside the outer pocket. I thought Marcus had brought it because he wanted to look at something for work.””
I stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?””
“Because I saw the second message.””
My mouth went dry.
“What did it say?””
Vanessa looked at Danielle.
“It said, 'If you tell Mommy, I'll never come home again.''”
Danielle's face crumpled.
“Oh, Lily.””
She sank onto the sofa, covering her mouth with both hands.
I wanted to go to her.
I wanted to kneel beside her and tell her that I was sorry for everything, that I would spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the things I had done.
But I knew there was no apology large enough to bring Lily back.
Officer Brooks crouched beside Danielle.
“Mrs. Reed, I need you to stay with me. Did you send any messages to Lily's account on Friday?””
“No.””
“Did you give anyone permission to use your phone?””
“No.””
“Was your phone ever out of your possession?””
Danielle shook her head.
“I used it to call Marcus. I used it to speak to the doctors. I used it to call my sister when Lily was taken into intensive care. I never gave it to anyone.””
“Did you send any messages to Mr. Reed's number?””
“No. I called him. Fifty-one times.””
Her voice broke.
“I wanted him to hear Lily's voice. That was all.””
Officer Brooks nodded slowly.
“I'm going to need to review the device records, but I want to be clear that a displayed phone number alone does not establish who sent a message.””
She turned to Vanessa.
“And you need to understand that withholding information can complicate this investigation.””
Vanessa nodded rapidly.
“I understand.””
“Do you?””
“Yes.””
“Then tell me why you didn't mention the tablet when we first arrived.””
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
I watched her struggle.
Finally, she whispered, “Because there was something else on it.””
My heart began to pound.
“What else?””
Vanessa looked at me with frightened eyes.
“A recording.””
Officer Brooks straightened.
“What kind of recording?””
“I don't know. It was a voice message saved on the tablet. I heard part of it before I turned the screen off.””
“Whose voice?””
Vanessa began to cry again.
“I thought it was Marcus.””
I shook my head.
“No.””
“It sounded like you.””
“I never recorded anything for Lily.””
“I know that now.””
“What did it say?””
Vanessa pressed her hands over her face.
“I only heard the beginning. Someone said, 'You need to stop calling me. Your mother is the reason I can't come home.''”
Danielle made a strangled sound.
I felt as if the floor had dropped away beneath me.
The words were mine in the worst possible sense. They sounded like something I might have said during one of my arguments with Danielle. Something cruel I'd muttered in frustration while Lily sat somewhere nearby, pretending not to listen.
But I had never said those words to my daughter.
I had never recorded them.
Officer Brooks held out her hand.
“May I have the tablet?””
Vanessa nodded.
Officer Brooks carefully placed it in a protective evidence pouch she had taken from her kit.
“I'm going to arrange for the appropriate digital examination. Nobody should access, alter, or delete anything on this device.””
I looked at the pouch.
“Can we hear the recording?””
“Not until we've documented the device and established the proper procedure.””
“But it could tell us who did this.””
“It could,” she agreed.
“Or it could be misleading. We need to examine it properly.””
Danielle rose slowly.
She looked at Vanessa, and for the first time, I saw something beyond grief and anger.
Fear.
“You said you thought the voice was Marcus,” she whispered.
“But you didn't know it was him.””
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.””
“Then why did you hide it?””
“Because I was afraid of what it meant.””
Danielle stepped closer.
“What did you think it meant?””
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“That someone wanted Lily to believe her father had abandoned her.””
The room went silent.
Then she added something that made Officer Brooks immediately stop writing.
“And whoever sent those messages knew exactly how to make them sound like Marcus.””
I stared at her.
“Why would anyone do that?””
Vanessa looked toward the staircase.
“I think they wanted to keep Lily quiet about something.””
“About what?””
She shook her head.
“I don't know.””
But the way she said it made me certain she knew more than she was admitting.
Officer Brooks closed her notebook.
“I'm going to need both of you to remain available for further questioning. I also need to speak with the hospital staff about the timeline and preserve any relevant communications.””
She looked at me.
“Mr. Reed, was there anyone else who knew you were away with Ms. Vanessa?””
I hesitated.
My colleagues knew I was traveling. Vanessa's friends knew. I'd told Danielle I was attending a conference, and I'd told my brother that I might be out of town through Monday.
But there was one person who knew the truth.
Someone who had confronted me about my affair weeks earlier.
Someone who had warned me that my lies would eventually hurt more than just my marriage.
My younger sister, Rachel.
She had found a hotel receipt in my car and demanded an explanation. I'd told her it was none of her business.
The last time we'd spoken, she'd said something I hadn't forgotten.
One day, Marcus, someone innocent is going to pay for the choices you're making.
I swallowed.
“There may be someone.””
Officer Brooks waited.
I looked at Danielle.
“Rachel knew about Vanessa.””
Danielle's expression changed.
“Your sister?””
“Yes.””
“When did she find out?””
“About a month ago.””
Danielle stared at me.
“And you never thought to tell me?””
“I was going to.””
She shook her head slowly.
“Of course you were.””
Officer Brooks wrote down Rachel's name and asked for her contact details.
Then she asked me to describe the last conversation I'd had with my sister.
I told her about the argument, the hotel receipt, and the warning.
When I finished, Officer Brooks closed her notebook.
“I'm going to speak with your sister.””
She paused, then added, “But before I do, there's one thing I need to establish.””
Her eyes moved between Vanessa and me.
“Who knew Lily had discovered the affair before she died?””
Neither of us answered.
Because suddenly, I understood something terrible.
Lily's letter wasn't just a confession of what she knew.
May you like
It was proof that someone else might have known, too.
And if that person had decided to silence her, then the messages on her tablet might only be the beginning.
