Chapter 2 - The WardrobeI couldn't move.
Daniel slept through everything.
Or pretended to.
Eleanor climbed out of the bed with surprising steadiness.
The drunken woman from hours earlier had vanished.
She wasn't stumbling.
She wasn't slurring.
She didn't even look tired.
She looked completely sober.
"You weren't drunk," I whispered.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"Then why?"
"Because Daniel needed to believe I was."
She walked toward the wardrobe.
I followed.
My wedding dress was still hanging from the bathroom door.
The irony wasn't lost on me.
I'd spent months preparing for a marriage.
Now, less than twenty-four hours after saying "I do," I was standing beside my mother-in-law while she prepared to explain why it might all be a lie.
She pointed at the brass lock.
"Open it."
I inserted the key.
Click.
The wardrobe door swung inward.
There were no clothes inside.
Only shelves.
And on the shelves were dozens of envelopes.
Every envelope had a woman's name written across it.
I read the first.
Mara Collins.
The second.
Julia Hayes.
The third.
Rebecca Moore.
My stomach turned.
"Who are these women?"
Eleanor didn't answer.
I grabbed another envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A young woman stood beside Daniel.
They were smiling.
The picture was dated six years earlier.
The woman wore an engagement ring.
My hands began trembling.
"Who is she?"
Eleanor looked at the photograph.
"Daniel's first fiancée."
"What happened to her?"
"She disappeared."
I stared at her.
"Disappeared?"
"Three weeks before the wedding."
I looked at the envelopes again.
"How many?"
"Seven."
My stomach dropped.
"Seven women?"
"Seven women who got close enough to learn something they weren't supposed to know."
A sound came from the bed.
Daniel shifted.
Eleanor immediately lowered her voice.
"You need to understand something, Claire. My son is not the man you think he is."
I shook my head.
"No."
"You've only known him for fourteen months."
"That's long enough."
"Not when someone has spent fourteen months building a version of himself specifically for you."
I stepped back.
"Why would he marry me?"
"Because of your father."
I froze.
"My father?"
Eleanor nodded.
"Your father knew about the account."
"What account?"
She reached into the wardrobe and pulled out a thick black folder.
Then she gave it to me.
Inside were bank statements.
Company records.
Photographs.
Legal documents.
And at the bottom was a photograph of my father shaking hands with Daniel's father.
I stared at the date.
It was taken twenty-three years earlier.
My father had always told me he'd never met Daniel's family before I introduced them.
That wasn't true.
The room seemed to tilt.
Eleanor touched my arm.
"Your father didn't meet them for the first time when you got engaged."
"Then when?"
"Long before you were born."
I looked at her.
"What were they doing?"
Eleanor's expression changed.
"Something that cost three people their lives."
A floorboard creaked outside the bedroom.
We both turned.
May you like
Someone was standing in the hallway.
Then the door slammed shut.
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