Chapter 2
“Put that pot down, Emma.”
My voice cut through the steam.
Jennifer spun around so fast the wineglass nearly slipped.
Emma froze.
Then she turned toward me.
The woman I had dreamed about for five years looked thinner, with dark circles beneath her eyes and hands cracked from soap and heat.
“Daniel?” she whispered.
I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around her.
She stiffened before finally collapsing against my chest.
That hesitation told me everything.
Behind us, Jennifer laughed nervously.
“Brother! You’re home early!”
I looked over Emma’s shoulder.
“Why is my wife washing your dishes?”
“Oh, please. Emma likes helping.”
Emma immediately looked at the floor.
I recognized fear.
“Look at me,” I told her gently.
Her eyes lifted.
“Did you choose this?”
Before she could answer, Jennifer snapped, “Don’t start making drama.”
That was her mistake.
I placed my phone on the counter.
On the screen was a bank statement I had uncovered during the flight home.
Five years of transfers.
Nearly three million dollars sent into an account supposedly created for Emma’s expenses.
Every withdrawal had been authorized by my mother.
Not Emma.
“You mean this kind of drama?” I asked.
Jennifer’s face went blank.
Footsteps thundered down the hallway.
My mother appeared with Michael behind her.
Their smiles vanished when they saw me.
“Daniel,” Mother breathed.
I held up the statement.
“Where is Emma’s money?”
Nobody answered.
“Why does my wife look like she hasn’t seen one dollar of what I sent her?”
Mother recovered first.
“She’s irresponsible. We had to protect the family assets.”
Emma flinched.
I turned toward her.
“Emma, where have you been sleeping?”
Her lips trembled.
“The room beside the laundry.”
My chest went cold.
Then she whispered, “They told me you stopped loving me three years ago.”
I stared at my mother.
Emma reached beneath her apron and handed me a sealed envelope.
“Daniel, there’s something else.”
Inside was a document bearing my signature.
Except I had never signed it.
May you like
It was a divorce petition.
According to the date stamped across the bottom, my family had filed it three years earlier.
