Chapter 6: The Man Named Daniel Reyes
Samantha stared at the message.
*There's more.
Things she doesn't even know yet.
Call me.*
She didn't recognize the number.
It wasn't Brittany.
The area code was Atlanta.
She called Rachel first.
"Someone else is watching him," Samantha said.
"Someone local.
They sent me photos from Miami and they're saying there's more."
"Don't call them yet," Rachel said immediately.
"Send the number to Gloria first.
Let her tell you whether it's safe to engage."
Samantha forwarded the number and the messages to Gloria without responding to the unknown contact.
Gloria called back within the hour.
"I had my assistant run it," Gloria said.
"The number is registered to a man named Marcus Webb.
He's a private investigator based here in Atlanta.
Mid-sized firm, legitimate operation, no complaints on record."
"Someone hired a PI to follow Christian," Samantha said.
"It appears so.
The question is who." Gloria paused.
"My instinct is to let you call him.
If someone else already has documentation on Christian's activities, it could significantly strengthen your position.
But I want you to put it on speaker and record the call."
Samantha called Marcus Webb that evening, her phone propped on the kitchen table, the recording app already running.
He answered on the first ring.
"Mrs.
Cardenas," he said.
"Thank you for calling back."
"Who hired you?" she asked.
"I'm not able to share that yet," he said.
"What I can tell you is that I've been documenting your husband's activities for the past six weeks.
And what I have goes beyond the affair and the apartment."
"Then tell me what it is."
A brief pause.
"Daniel Reyes is not a tax shelter," Marcus said.
"It's a person.
He's a real man.
Christian has been sending him money every month for over a year.
Not savings.
Not investment.
Payment."
Samantha felt something cold move through her.
"Payment for what?"
"That's what took me a while to confirm," Marcus said.
"Daniel Reyes is Christian's brother.
Half-brother.
Different mother.
Christian's family doesn't know he exists, or at least that's what Christian told Reyes.
He's been keeping him quiet."
The kitchen was very still.
"Christian has a brother he's been hiding," Samantha said.
"And paying to stay hidden," Marcus said.
"Reyes reached out to Christian about two years ago.
He'd found him through a genealogy site.
Christian panicked.
He didn't want his family — or apparently his wife — to know.
So he started sending money.
Reyes accepted it for a while.
Then he started asking for more."
"He was being blackmailed," Samantha said.
"Essentially, yes.
And when the payments weren't enough anymore, Christian needed a larger sum of money quickly.
Enough to pay Reyes off in full and make him disappear."
Samantha understood now.
The urgency of the sale.
The below-market price.
The rushed timeline.
"He needed the apartment money to buy his brother's silence," she said.
"That's my conclusion," Marcus said.
"And Brittany was the exit plan.
He was going to take the money, pay off Reyes, and start over with her.
She didn't know any of this."
"Who hired you?" Samantha asked again.
This time Marcus answered.
"Daniel Reyes," he said.
"He hired me three weeks ago.
When Christian stopped returning his calls, Reyes got nervous.
He wanted documentation of Christian's assets in case he needed leverage."
Samantha sat back slowly.
The man Christian had been paying to stay silent had hired someone to watch him.
And that someone had found her.
"Mr.
Webb," she said.
"I need everything you have.
Every photo, every record, every date.
Can you get that to my lawyer by tomorrow morning?"
"Already prepared," he said.
"I was hoping you'd ask."
After the call, Samantha sat in the quiet apartment for a long time.
Christian had been running from one secret while building another.
He had used her home, her trust, and twelve years of her life to fund an escape he had never once planned to take her on.
Her phone lit up on the table.
A message from Brittany.
*He's acting strange tonight.
May you like
Distracted.
I think he knows something is wrong.*
