Chapter 3: The Woman Who Was Supposed To Be Gone
I stared at the photograph until the screen dimmed.
Then I tapped it again.
And again.
As if looking at it longer would somehow change what I was seeing.
It didn’t.
The woman in the picture was older than the last photo I had seen of her.
Her hair was shorter.
There were more lines around her eyes.
But I knew that face.
I knew the small scar near her eyebrow.
I knew the way she tilted her head slightly when she smiled.
Because I had seen that face hanging in Daniel’s childhood home.
In a framed photograph beside the fireplace.
A photograph he never touched.
A photograph covered in dust.
His mother.
Evelyn Mercer.
The woman Daniel told me had died seven years ago.
My fingers trembled around the phone.
A cold feeling moved through me.
Not because Daniel had betrayed me.
That pain was already there.
This was different.
This felt like discovering there had been an entire hidden room in my own house.
A room I had never known existed.
I called the number.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then someone answered.
“Hello, Claire.””
I froze.
The voice was a woman’s.
Older.
Calm.
Certain.
“How do you know my name?””
A pause.
Then:
“Because I’ve been waiting for you to find out the truth.””
I stepped away from the hotel entrance.
Cars passed along the street.
People walked by carrying shopping bags and laughing.
Nobody knew my entire marriage had just collapsed.
Nobody knew I was standing there talking to a stranger who claimed to know my husband’s darkest secret.
“Who are you?””
The woman sighed.
“I think you already know.””
I looked at the photograph again.
My throat tightened.
“Evelyn Mercer died seven years ago.””
“No.””
The answer came instantly.
“She disappeared seven years ago.””
The difference between those two words felt enormous.
Died.
Disappeared.
I gripped my phone tighter.
“Who are you?””
“My name is Linda Hayes.””
The name meant nothing.
“I don’t know you.””
“No. But you know my daughter.””
My eyebrows pulled together.
“Your daughter?””
“She worked with Daniel before you met him.””
A strange feeling settled in my stomach.
“Who?””
The woman didn’t answer immediately.
Then she said:
“Rebecca.””
I stopped breathing.
Rebecca.
The name felt familiar.
Not because I knew her.
Because Daniel had mentioned it once.
Only once.
And the way he had said it made me think I had imagined the discomfort on his face.
Seven years ago.
Before our wedding.
A woman named Rebecca.
A chapter Daniel had closed.
Or so I thought.
“Claire,” Linda said softly.
I swallowed.
“What happened?””
The line went quiet.
Then she spoke.
“My daughter died because of Daniel Mercer.””
The words hit harder than the divorce papers.
I almost dropped my phone.
“No.””
The response came too quickly.
Too automatically.
“No, that’s impossible.””
“Is it?””
“Yes.””
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me.
“Daniel isn’t—”
I stopped.
The sentence wouldn’t come.
Daniel isn’t capable of hurting someone.
That was what I wanted to say.
But hours earlier, I had watched him destroy our marriage without hesitation.
The woman on the phone continued.
“Seven years ago, Rebecca was working at Vantage Meridian. She discovered something she wasn’t supposed to know.””
“What?””
“She found out Daniel was taking credit for someone else’s work.””
I frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.””
“It does if you understand who Daniel was back then.””
I leaned against the hotel wall.
The cold stone pressed against my back.
“He told me he struggled when he was younger.””
“He did.””
Her voice hardened.
“But not because he was unlucky.””
A car horn sounded nearby.
I barely noticed.
“What are you saying?””
“I’m saying Daniel built his career on a lie.””
I closed my eyes.
I wanted to reject every word.
But another part of me remembered the way Daniel had looked at me tonight.
The way he had protected his reputation before protecting my heart.
“What does this have to do with Natalie?””
Linda was quiet.
Then:
“Nothing.””
That surprised me.
“Nothing?””
“Natalie is just another person who believes Daniel’s version of himself.””
I frowned.
“Then why contact me tonight?””
“Because tonight was supposed to be the beginning of his final victory.””
I looked back through the hotel doors.
Inside, Daniel was probably still surrounded by executives.
Still smiling.
Still pretending.
“What final victory?””
Linda lowered her voice.
“The promotion.””
I stared.
“That’s what this is about?””
“No.””
The certainty in her voice made me uncomfortable.
“The promotion was never the goal.””
“Then what was?””
A long silence followed.
When she finally spoke, her words were quiet.
“He wants control of the company.””
I almost laughed.
“That’s insane.””
“Is it?””
“Yes.””
I rubbed my forehead.
“Daniel just became Regional Operations Director.””
“Exactly.””
The woman continued.
“Because that position gives him access.””
“To what?””
“Financial records. Internal reports. Company history.””
I felt a chill.
“Why would he need that?””
“Because he has spent seven years trying to erase what happened.””
My heart pounded.
I looked at the picture again.
Evelyn Mercer.
Rebecca.
Seven years ago.
Everything seemed connected by a thread I couldn’t see.
“Linda, if this is true, why haven’t you told anyone?””
“I tried.””
Her voice changed.
Pain entered it.
“I tried when my daughter was alive.””
Silence.
“After she died, I tried again.””
“And?””
“Nobody listened.””
The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable.
“Daniel was already becoming someone important. People didn’t want to believe the young employee with a tragic story over the man with a perfect career.””
I swallowed.
“Why should I believe you?””
It was the question I needed to ask.
Not because I trusted Daniel.
But because I couldn’t replace one impossible truth with another.
Linda answered quietly.
“Because I have proof.””
My breathing slowed.
“What kind of proof?””
“A recording.””
I straightened.
“A recording of what?””
“Daniel admitting what he did.””
The city noise suddenly felt distant.
“What did he do?””
The woman hesitated.
Then:
“He caused the accident that killed my daughter.””
My hand covered my mouth.
“No.””
“He didn’t mean for her to die.””
That sentence somehow made it worse.
“He only wanted to scare her.””
I felt sick.
“Scare her?””
“Rebecca threatened to expose him. Daniel followed her after work. He confronted her.””
My mind flashed back to Daniel saying:
I never wanted to hurt you.
The same words.
The same excuse.
“He told me he lost control,” Linda continued.
“He told me he pushed her. He told me he didn’t think she would fall.””
I couldn’t speak.
The woman’s voice trembled.
“My daughter was twenty-eight years old.””
I looked at the street beneath my feet.
Twenty-eight.
The same age I had been when Daniel and I got married.
“Why tell me now?””
“Because I saw you standing beside him tonight.””
I frowned.
“What?””
“I watched the livestream.””
The gala.
Of course.
The company had streamed the promotion announcement.
“I saw your face.””
Her voice softened.
“You looked at him the way my daughter used to look at him.””
My stomach twisted.
“He made both of you believe he was a good man.””
I looked down.
A tear fell onto the screen of my phone.
I wiped it away quickly.
“What do you want from me?””
“I want you to find the truth.””
“That’s all?””
“No.””
The answer came immediately.
“I want you to stop him before he destroys another person.””
A notification appeared on my phone.
Another message.
This time from Daniel.
*Where are you? We need to talk.*
I stared at it.
The man who had betrayed me.
The man who might have hidden something far worse.
The man I had loved for eleven years.
Linda spoke again.
“Claire.””
“Yes?””
“Do not tell Daniel you spoke to me.””
My fingers tightened.
“Why?””
“Because if he knows you’re looking into the past…”
She stopped.
“What?””
Her voice became barely a whisper.
“He will do everything he can to make sure you never find the recording.””
The call ended.
I stood frozen beneath the hotel lights.
A few minutes ago, I thought my life had ended because my husband wanted another woman.
Now I wasn’t sure my marriage had been the biggest lie.
I looked at Daniel’s message again.
*Where are you? We need to talk.*
For years, those words would have comforted me.
Tonight, they felt like a warning.
I typed a reply.
My thumb hovered over the screen.
Then I deleted it.
Instead, I opened my contacts.
I found the name I had not called in months.
My younger sister, Emma.
The person who had warned me about Daniel long before I was ready to listen.
Before I could press call, my phone lit up again.
Not Daniel.
Not Linda.
A new message from an unknown number.
One sentence.
*If you want the truth about Rebecca, come to the old Mercer house tomorrow morning.*
I stared at the words.
The old Mercer house.
The place Daniel had refused to visit since his mother’s disappearance.
The place he told me was full of painful memories.
Then another message appeared.
A photograph.
This time, it wasn’t of Evelyn.
It was of Daniel.
Standing outside that same house.
Taken yesterday.
My blood turned cold.
May you like
Because Daniel had told me he had never been there in seven years.
And someone had just proven he was lying.
