Chapter 3: What the Old Man Knew
The rest of the family hadn't moved.
Ethan's sister, Claire, stood near the doorway with her hand still pressed to her mouth.
Their uncle, Paul, had taken one step back toward the wall, as if he wanted the room to swallow him.
Sophia hadn't moved either.
She was watching Richard the way someone watches a door they're not sure is locked.
Richard didn't look at any of them.
He looked only at Ethan.
"Sit down, son."
"I don't want to sit down." Ethan's voice cracked on the last word.
"I want you to explain what that message means.
Who sent it?
What aren't you telling me?"
Richard lowered himself into the armchair near the window.
His movements were slow and deliberate, the way old men move when they are carrying something heavier than their body.
"I installed that camera eight months ago," he said.
"Not because I was spying.
Because I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Of exactly what just happened." He folded his hands in his lap.
"Sophia has done this before, Ethan.
Not to me.
To someone else."
The room went very still.
"What someone else?" Claire said from the doorway.
Richard looked at her, then back at Ethan.
"Before you married her.
There was a man named Gerald Holt.
He was her employer.
She accused him of the same thing she just accused me of.
He lost his business.
His marriage.
His reputation." He paused.
"He didn't have a camera."
Ethan turned to look at Sophia.
She didn't flinch.
Her chin came up slightly instead.
"He's lying," she said.
"He's been trying to turn you against me since the day we got married.
You know that.
You've always known that."
"Sophia—"
"He never liked me, Ethan.
From the very beginning.
Ask Claire.
Ask anyone in this room.
He has never once made me feel welcome in this family."
Richard's voice stayed level.
"I have the court records from Gerald Holt's case.
I have his contact information.
I have a letter he wrote, which he agreed to let me keep, explaining what happened to him." He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and produced a folded envelope.
"I have been carrying this for four months, waiting for the right moment.
I did not want to be the one to do this to your marriage.
But I could not let her do it to me."
Ethan didn't move toward the envelope.
He stood in the center of the room, looking at his father, then at his wife, then back at his father.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he said.
"Four months ago.
Six months ago.
Why did you wait?"
"Because you were happy." Richard's voice dropped.
"Or I thought you were.
And I kept hoping I was wrong about her."
Sophia laughed.
It was a short, sharp sound, nothing like tears.
"This is unbelievable.
He stages an entire intervention with forged documents and a hidden camera, and you're standing there listening to him like he's some kind of—"
"The camera wasn't hidden," Richard said quietly.
"It has been in that corner since March.
You walked past it every day."
Sophia's mouth closed.
"You knew it was there," Richard said.
"Which means you chose that room on purpose.
And you still thought it wouldn't catch you." He looked at his son.
"That tells you something about how many times she has done this without being caught."
Ethan looked down at his phone.
The unknown number's message was still on the screen.
*This isn't the first time.*
He typed back one word: *Who is this?*
Three dots appeared immediately.
Then a name came through that made Ethan go completely still.
It was a name he recognized.
Someone he had not spoken to in three years.
Someone Sophia had told him, very early in their relationship, he should stop being friends with.
May you like
He looked up at his wife.
"Why did you make me cut off Daniel Marsh?"
