PART 8

My daughters had lived around tension for so long that their bodies no longer seemed to understand what peace felt like. That realization made my decision for me. I reached beneath the seat, pulled out the small suitcase, and entered the six-digit code. Inside, beneath a folded navy sweater, lay a thick cream-colored envelope. My maiden name was written across the front in Daniel Reynolds’s handwriting. PENELOPE VANCE—OPEN ONLY IF THEY DISCOVER THE DATES. My fingers went cold. Daniel had not written, “If something happens to me.” He had written, “If they discover the dates.” He had known the pregnancy would expose everything. I broke the dark green wax seal. Inside were four items. A handwritten letter. A brass key attached to a metal tag stamped 317. A flash drive. And a photograph of Walter Reynolds entering the Ashcroft Hotel with Naomi. The date printed in the corner was seven months earlier. Naomi had already been pregnant. Victor had still been in Singapore. Walter’s hand rested against Naomi’s lower back. “What is it?” Mrs. Gable asked. I handed her the photograph. She studied it without speaking. Then I unfolded Daniel’s letter. Penelope,

If you are reading this, Naomi’s pregnancy has been dated correctly, which means Victor finally knows the child cannot be his. The baby is mine. I stopped reading. My eyes moved back to the beginning as though the words might change. They did not. The baby is mine. Daniel was Walter’s younger half brother. He was fifty-one, married to Claire for twenty-six years, and worked as the chief financial officer of Reynolds Engineering. At family dinners, he was always the quiet one. He remembered the girls’ birthdays. He asked Abigail about school and once spent an entire afternoon helping Charlotte build a cardboard castle. I had never imagined him with Naomi. I forced myself to continue. I will not excuse what I did. I betrayed my wife, and I will carry the shame of that for the rest of my life. Naomi and I ended our relationship shortly before she learned she was pregnant. She told me about the baby while Victor was still overseas. I wanted to tell Claire and accept whatever followed. Walter would not allow it. He said the scandal would destroy the company, damage an upcoming merger, and expose financial transactions he had spent years hiding. He offered Naomi money to remain silent. When she refused, he offered her something more valuable: a permanent place inside the Reynolds family. Walter knew Victor was lonely, vain, and desperate for a son. He instructed Naomi to become indispensable to him before he returned from Singapore. She did.

The affair began three weeks after Victor came home. The words made my stomach turn. Victor had destroyed our marriage for a woman who had selected him because his father told her he would be easy to manipulate. I remembered the first night Victor came home smelling like Naomi’s perfume. He had stood in our kitchen, looked directly into my eyes, and called me paranoid. Now I knew that while I had been questioning my sanity, his father had been planning the destruction of our family like a corporate acquisition. The letter continued. Naomi took a prenatal paternity test when she was twelve weeks pregnant. The result is on the flash drive. I am the biological father. Walter ordered her to change the due date and identify Victor as the father. But the pregnancy is only one part of this. The real reason Walter needed you out of the marriage involves Abigail and Charlotte. I looked instinctively at my daughters. Abigail was no longer watching the clouds. She was watching me. “Is it bad?” she asked. “It’s something the adults should have told me a long time ago.” “Is it about Dad?” “Partly.” Her eyes lowered. “Everything bad is about Dad now.” I reached across Charlotte and took Abigail’s hand. “No, sweetheart. Everything difficult may involve your father, but what happens next is about us.” She nodded, although I could see she did not completely understand. Neither did I.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART….