Chapter 3 - The Woman My Husband Said He Barely KnewDaniel came home that evening.
Not because police believed him.
Because they did not yet have enough to arrest him.
I sent Talia to my sister Rachel's house before he arrived.
For the first time in our marriage, I locked the bedroom door while waiting for my husband.
At 8:06, I heard the front door.
“Claire?”
I remained in the kitchen.
Daniel appeared.
He looked destroyed.
“I need to explain.”
I laughed.
It sounded ugly.
“That's an interesting choice of words.”
He sat across from me.
I placed my phone on the table.
Anna's messages were open.
His face changed.
“How long?”
He closed his eyes.
“Claire.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
Something inside me became very still.
“When?”
“Last winter.”
“While she worked here?”
He nodded.
“Did you sleep with her in my house?”
“No.”
“Does that matter?”
“No.”
At least he knew enough not to defend himself.
“Did you know she was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“May.”
Five months earlier.
I looked toward the back window.
The barn lights glowed beyond the yard.
For months Daniel had eaten dinner with me.
Helped Talia with homework.
Kissed me goodnight.
And known another woman was carrying a child that might be his.
“Did she tell you the baby was yours?”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe her?”
“I didn't know.”
“Did you ask for testing?”
“She wanted to wait until birth.”
“So you waited.”
His eyes filled.
“I was terrified.”
I nearly shouted.
“Of what? A DNA test?”
“Of losing you.”
I stared.
“You made that decision when you cheated.”
Daniel flinched.
Then I asked:
“What happened last night?”
He looked away.
“Anna called.”
“What did she say?”
“She was in labor.”
“And?”
“She said my mother had been contacting her.”
“Why?”
Daniel said nothing.
“Daniel.”
“Mom found out months ago.”
“How?”
“She saw a transfer.”
“What transfer?”
“I had been giving Anna money.”
My stomach turned again.
Cora controlled several family accounts because Daniel's late father left much of the farm property inside the Collins Family Trust.
Of course she saw.
“What did Cora do?”
“She met Anna.”
I stood.
“You let your mother meet the pregnant woman you had an affair with?”
“I didn't know until afterward.”
“What did she offer?”
Daniel stared.
“Money.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred thousand.”
I almost laughed.
“For her to disappear?”
“Yes.”
“Did Anna accept?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
Daniel continued.
“She said she didn't want the Collins money. She wanted the baby acknowledged.”
I thought of the newborn beneath the warming lamp.
“Then why was he behind my barn?”
Daniel covered his face.
“Because I panicked.”
“No.”
I slammed my palm against the table.
“That's not an explanation anymore.”
He looked up.
“Anna called me around three-thirty. She said she'd delivered.”
“At Saint Joseph's.”
“Yes.”
“She asked me to come.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“My mother called ten minutes later.”
Of course.
“What did Cora say?”
“That Anna was unstable. That she was threatening to come here with the baby.”
“Was she?”
“I don't know.”
“She had just given birth!”
“I know.”
Daniel's voice cracked.
“Mom said she would handle it.”
That phrase would appear again and again over the following months.
She would handle it.
At 5:20, Cora called Daniel.
She told him Anna had abandoned the child.
A driver was bringing the baby to Daniel.
I stared.
“Why would anyone bring him here?”
Daniel whispered:
“Because Mom said we had to keep the situation out of the hospital records.”
My skin went cold.
“Out of the hospital records?”
“She said if the press discovered—
“The press?”
I could barely speak.
“You left a newborn outside because you were worried about newspapers?”
“No!”
He stood.
“I wasn't going to leave him there long.”
“How long?”
“I thought you or Talia would find him.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“You staged the discovery.”
“I knew you'd call an ambulance.”
“Then why didn't you?”
He cried.
“Because the second I called, they would ask why he was in my truck!”
I stepped away.
For the first time, I was afraid of the man I married.
Not because I thought he would hurt me.
Because I understood what fear could persuade him to do.
“Where is Anna?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes!”
His voice broke.
“I swear.”
I studied him.
Then asked:
“Why did Talia hear you tell Cora you couldn't do it?”
Daniel lowered his head.
“Because Mom told me to drive farther away.”
My breath stopped.
“How far?”
He whispered:
“Across county lines.”
The implication hit.
Leave the baby somewhere no one could connect to us.
I felt sick.
“And you refused?”
“Yes.”
“So instead you left him behind our barn in forty-degree weather.”
“I wrapped him.”
The instant those words left his mouth, Daniel knew how monstrous they sounded.
I stared.
“You wrapped him.”
He began crying.
“I was going to wait ten minutes and then pretend I found him.”
“But Talia found him first.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then I asked:
“Is he yours?”
Daniel whispered:
“I think so.”
I took my wedding ring off.
Placed it on the table.
He stared.
“Claire.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“You don't get to ask me for anything tonight.”
He looked at the ring.
Then at me.
“What are you going to do?”
“Tell the police everything you just told me.”
His face drained.
“Claire.”
“A newborn almost died because you wanted plausible deniability.”
“I made one terrible decision.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
I thought of Anna.
The affair.
The months of lies.
Cora.
The secret money.
The hospital.
The barn.
“You made a hundred decisions.”
Then my phone rang.
Detective Maya.
I answered.
“Mrs. Collins?”
“Yes.”
“We found Anna Reyes.”
I gripped the counter.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief came first.
Then Maya continued.
“But she says she never gave Daniel or Cora permission to take her baby.”
I looked directly at my husband.
Daniel stopped breathing.
May you like
Maya said:
“Anna says her son was taken from her hospital room while she was sedated.”
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