Chapter 2
Daniel drove me home himself.
Neither of us spoke for the first ten minutes.
I kept touching my cheek.
Not because it still hurt physically.
Because I couldn’t believe it had happened.
Daniel gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were pale.
Finally, I said, “You should go back.”
“No.”
“You have guests.”
“They can go home.”
“Daniel, you spent months planning that wedding.”
“Lauren planned a performance.”
I looked at him.
He exhaled sharply.
“I should have seen this coming.”
That frightened me.
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
We reached my house shortly after midnight.
The porch light was still on because I always left it burning when I expected Daniel home late.
He helped me inside.
I put the remaining roses into a glass of water.
Only three survived.
Daniel stared at them.
Then his phone started ringing.
Lauren.
He rejected the call.
It rang again.
Rejected.
Again.
Then her father.
Then her mother.
Then Lauren.
Finally Daniel switched the phone off.
“You can stay here tonight,” I said.
“I’m not going back to that hotel.”
His wedding suite.
I hated even thinking about it.
Daniel took off his tuxedo jacket and sat at my kitchen table.
For several moments he looked like a little boy again.
Lost.
I made tea because mothers make tea when there is nothing else they know how to fix.
When I placed the cup in front of him, Daniel looked at my cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop.”
“I brought her into your life.”
“You loved her.”
“I thought I did.”
His voice cracked.
That hurt me more than the slap.
I sat beside him.
“Tell me what you meant in the car.”
He looked down.
“Lauren has been trying to separate us for months.”
I already knew she disliked me.
I hadn’t known Daniel noticed.
“She complained whenever I visited,” he continued. “She said you called too much. She said you depended on me emotionally.”
My chest tightened.
“I call you maybe twice a week.”
“I know.”
“She told me you wanted to control our marriage.”
Daniel nodded miserably.
“I defended you. We fought about it constantly.”
I stared into my tea.
Suddenly dozens of strange moments made sense.
Lauren changing holiday plans.
Lauren forgetting to tell me about dinners.
Lauren telling me Daniel was working when he later said he had been home.
“She was trying to push me out.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
His phone suddenly buzzed again.
He had turned it back on.
This time the caller was his best man, Marcus.
Daniel answered.
“What?”
Marcus spoke so loudly I could hear him.
“Do not go back to the hotel.”
Daniel straightened.
“Why?”
“I’m serious. Lauren is telling everyone your mother attacked her first.”
My mouth fell open.
Daniel stood.
“She what?”
“She says Margaret grabbed her dress, threatened her, and Lauren reacted instinctively.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know. Half the ballroom saw it.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“There’s something else.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What?”
“I found Lauren in the bridal suite with her father and your accountant before the ceremony.”
Daniel frowned.
“My accountant?”
“Martin Hale.”
My stomach tightened.
Martin handled Daniel’s business finances.
He had done so for nearly four years.
“What were they doing?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know. But when I walked in, Lauren shoved papers into her purse.”
Daniel slowly sat down.
“What papers?”
“I couldn’t see.”
After the call ended, silence filled the kitchen.
Daniel looked shaken.
I tried calming him.
“Perhaps it was nothing.”
“Martin had no reason to be in Lauren’s bridal suite.”
I knew that too.
Daniel owned a successful construction company his father had originally started.
After my husband died, I had transferred my shares to Daniel gradually.
The company had become worth millions.
Lauren had always been fascinated by that success.
At first I thought she was proud of him.
Now I wondered.
Daniel opened his laptop.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking the company accounts.”
For nearly twenty minutes he clicked through statements.
Then he froze.
“What?”
He leaned toward the screen.
“There are transfers.”
My stomach dropped.
“What kind?”
“Small ones at first.”
He scrolled.
“Twenty thousand. Fifteen. Thirty.”
“To where?”
“A consulting company.”
“Which company?”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“LKM Holdings.”
I knew those initials.
Lauren Katherine Mercer.
Daniel immediately called Martin.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then he searched the company registration.
His expression grew darker.
“LKM Holdings was created eleven months ago.”
“Who owns it?”
He stared at me.
“Lauren.”
A cold sensation moved through my body.
“How much money?”
Daniel kept calculating.
I watched his face change with every number.
Finally he leaned back.
“Almost six hundred thousand dollars.”
I covered my mouth.
“Daniel.”
He stood so abruptly the chair scraped backward.
“I trusted her.”
“We don’t know everything yet.”
“I gave her access to parts of the company because we were getting married.”
His eyes filled with fury.
“She was stealing from me.”
The doorbell rang.
Both of us jumped.
It was nearly one in the morning.
Daniel moved toward the window.
A black SUV sat outside.
Then someone knocked.
Hard.
Three times.
Daniel looked through the peephole.
“Who is it?” I whispered.
His jaw tightened.
“Lauren.”
She knocked again.
“Daniel!”
He didn’t move.
“Daniel, open this door!”
I stood behind him.
Lauren’s voice changed.
Less angry.
More desperate.
“I know you found the transfers.”
Daniel slowly turned toward me.
My blood went cold.
Lauren continued from the porch.
“And if you think six hundred thousand dollars is what you should be worried about, you have no idea what your mother signed.”
I stopped breathing.
Daniel opened the door.
Lauren stood beneath my porch light wearing a coat over her wedding gown.
Mascara streaked down her face.
She held a folder against her chest.
May you like
And when she looked directly at me, she smiled.
“Margaret,” she said softly, “you really should read documents before you sign them.”
