Chapter 4: What Raymond Knew
Daniel answered it on speaker without asking anyone's permission.
"Raymond."
"Daniel." His uncle's voice was rough, like a man who hadn't slept.
"Is your mother there?"
"She's here."
A long exhale on the other end.
"I need you to listen to me.
All of you.
I've been trying to find the right moment to say this for three years and there is no right moment, so I'm just going to say it."
Linda's chin lifted.
"Raymond, whatever you think you know—"
"I know everything, Linda." His voice didn't rise.
That was worse.
"I found the generator on your laptop two months after Patricia left.
I didn't say anything because I couldn't make myself believe it.
My own sister." A pause.
"I've been living with that ever since."
The room was absolutely still.
"You let Patricia lose her son," Daniel said slowly.
"You knew and you said nothing."
"I know what I did.
I'm not calling to defend it." Raymond's voice cracked on the last word and steadied again.
"I'm calling because I have the original files.
I copied everything off Linda's laptop before she could clear it.
Screenshots, the generator software, search history, draft messages.
I have it all on an external drive and I'm prepared to hand it to whoever needs it."
I looked at Daniel.
He was gripping the phone so hard the case was flexing.
"Why now?" I asked.
"Why tonight?"
"Because Patricia called me an hour ago.
First time in three years." Raymond stopped.
"She told me what she found.
She told me about your wife." Another stop.
"I have a grandson I barely know because I was a coward.
I'm not going to sit on this any longer."
Linda stood up.
"You have no right," she said.
Her voice had changed — the softness gone, something harder and colder underneath.
"Everything I did, I did for this family.
For Daniel.
She was never right for him.
She was never going to be right for him.
I saw it from the beginning."
"So you destroyed two marriages," Daniel said.
"I protected you."
"You made me throw my wife out of her own house in front of our daughter." His voice was very low.
"Chloe bribed our daughter with a pony to stay quiet about what she saw."
"Children forget—"
"I won't forget." Chloe's voice came from the doorway.
She hadn't moved.
She was still standing there, watching.
"I won't ever forget, Grandma."
The word landed like something physical.
Linda flinched.
"Raymond," Daniel said to the phone, "can you get that drive to us tonight?"
"I'm already in the car."
Daniel ended the call.
He set the phone on the table.
He looked at his mother for a long moment without speaking.
Then he said, "I'm going to ask you one question and I need you to tell me the truth.
Just once.
Just this one time."
Linda said nothing.
"Was there anyone else?
Besides Patricia.
Was there anyone else you did this to?"
The silence stretched out.
Linda's eyes moved to me, then away.
"Mom."
She smoothed the front of her blouse with both hands.
A small, precise gesture.
The kind of thing a person does when they are deciding how much of the truth they can afford.
"There was one other," she said finally.
"Before Patricia.
It didn't go as far."
Daniel pulled out a chair and sat down.
He put his elbows on the table and his face in his hands.
I reached across and put my hand on his arm.
May you like
He didn't pull away.
We sat like that until headlights swept across the kitchen window — Raymond turning into the driveway — and whatever came next was already on its way through the door.
