Rebecca Hale
Chapter 05 - Rebecca Hale
The woman in the camel coat was not a doctor.
Her name, according to the driver's license she reluctantly showed through the cracked doorway, was Marjorie Ellis. She was a notary from Hoboken who kept saying she had been told this was a family mediation.
Nathan tried to laugh it off.
"You always did love theater, Danny."
"You brought a notary to my house at nine o'clock at night."
"Because you asked for clean paperwork."
"I asked you for nothing."
Nathan glanced toward the den door. His smile thinned at the edges. "Is Emily listening?"
"No."
That was another lie.
Daniel hoped it was useful.
From behind the pocket door, he knew Emily was listening with Lily pressed against her side. He knew because he could feel the house listening too: the stillness of the lamp, the quiet tablet, the rain stopping on the roof as if the night itself had leaned closer.
Nathan looked past him, trying to assess the room.
"You need to sign temporary control over Lily before this escalates. It protects you. It protects the company. It protects the family."
"From Emily?"
"From whatever Emily has gotten involved in."
Daniel removed the orange bottle from his pocket and held it where Nathan could see.
Nathan's eyes flickered to it.
Not surprise.
Calculation.
"What's that?" he asked.
Daniel almost admired the nerve.
"You tell me."
"I don't know."
"Rebecca Hale. Box 417. Trust Review Friday. Does any of that refresh your memory?"
Marjorie Ellis took one step back on the porch.
Nathan turned his head slowly toward her. "Wait in the car."
She did not move.
"Now," Nathan said.
Daniel opened the door wider but kept his body in the gap. "Ms. Ellis, I suggest you call an attorney before you notarize anything for my brother."
The woman went pale and hurried down the walkway.
Nathan watched her go, then looked back at Daniel. For the first time that night, the mask slipped enough to reveal irritation beneath the concern.
"You're making a mistake."
"Probably not my first today."
"Emily found something she doesn't understand. She's using it to turn you against your own blood."
Daniel felt an old reflex rise—the boy in him still wanting Nathan to explain the world back into shape.
Then Lily's voice came from behind the den door.
"Daddy?"
The reflex died.
Daniel did not turn away from Nathan. "It's okay, baby."
"Uncle Nathan told me not to tell Mommy."
Nathan's expression sharpened.
"Daniel," he said, "children misunderstand things."
The pocket door opened before Daniel could stop it.
Lily stood there in pink pajamas, one hand in Emily's, face wet but chin lifted. Emily looked terrified, yet she did not pull her back.
"He said Mommy would go away," Lily whispered. "If I talked about the jacket."
Nathan exhaled through his nose.
"This is absurd."
Emily stepped forward. "Ask him about Rebecca Hale."
The name changed Nathan completely.
Only for half a second.
But Daniel had spent the evening learning the value of half seconds.
"Who is she?" Daniel asked.
Nathan looked at Emily with hatred so clean it seemed polished.
"Your wife has been digging through family matters that don't concern her."
"My father's name is on that bottle."
"Our father's name is on many things. He was careless."
"He died when I was twenty-one. You told me it was an accident."
"It was."
"Then why did he leave a safe-deposit box under the name Rebecca Hale?"
For a moment, the only sound was water dripping from Nathan's umbrella onto the porch.
Then Nathan leaned closer to the chain and spoke so softly Emily could not have heard him, but Daniel did.
"Because Rebecca Hale was the woman he was trying to hide from our mother."
Daniel stared at him.
Nathan smiled with a pity that did not reach his eyes.
"Open the box, Danny. See what saints our parents were."
Then he stepped back into the rain.
And before Daniel could ask another question, his phone buzzed with a new message from an unknown number.
A photograph of Emily, Lily, and Daniel leaving the house two Sundays earlier.
May you like
Under it, one line:
He is not the only brother watching you.
