“No. Stay here.”
I wanted someone else to hear whatever he was about to say. I needed proof that I wasn’t imagining this, because I could barely believe it myself.
Daniel—my husband’s former business partner, the man who had made Joe’s death sound like some kind of deserved consequence—was standing in front of me.
And a part of me was deeply afraid to find out what he wanted with Emma and me.
Daniel sat down again.
“Why did you want to see my daughter?” I asked.
“Because of what she did for my son, Caleb.”
My mouth went dry. “Caleb is your son?”
He nodded. “I wanted to thank her. But when Caleb told me her last name so I could ask for her, I realized who she was.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I also realized this might be my only chance to tell you the truth about Joe and what he did.”
My heart started racing. “What are you talking about?”
Daniel held my gaze for a long moment.
Then he said, “Joe didn’t lose that money. He didn’t cause the business to collapse. He was covering for someone else.”
“What? Who was he covering for? Why would he do that?”
“He was covering for me.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I made a risky decision. I pushed forward after your husband told me not to. I thought I could fix it before anyone realized how bad it was.”
I felt sick.
“When everything started falling apart, he found out,” Daniel said. “I told him I would take responsibility. I swore I would, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“Why not?” I snapped. “Why would he take the fall for you?”
“Because I was the one with the Ivy League degree. I was the one investors trusted. He said keeping my name clean was our only chance to recover from that disaster.”
Anger burned through me.
