Chapter 8 - THE CONFESSIONI walked slowly toward my husband, the man I had loved and trusted for eight years, the man who had watched me slip into a snowbank and walked away without a backward glance.
Daniel shrank away from me, his hands trembling at his sides. "Clare... please. I was under pressure. The firm, the debt—"
"You killed my father," I said, my voice cutting through his excuses like a razor.
Daniel’s breath hitched. "No—that's crazy—the police said—"
"The police said what you paid them to say," I interrupted, stepping close enough to smell the panic rolling off him in waves. "You altered his medical logs. You administered the compounds that triggered his cardiac arrest. Why, Daniel? Because he caught you skimming from the research grants?"
"He was going to ruin everything!" Daniel finally snapped, his mask of composure shattering completely. Spittle flew from his lips as his eyes bulged with desperate hysteria. "He was old! He didn't understand how the modern world works! He wanted to give everything away to charity! I built that firm with him—I deserved it!"
I didn't flinch. I didn't cry. I simply reached out, grabbed the expensive silk lapel of his suit jacket, and pulled him down until our eyes met.
"And me?" I whispered, my voice ice-cold. "Did I deserve to freeze to death in the Adirondacks?"
Daniel stared into my eyes, and for the first time, he saw the truth: the weak, timid wife he thought he could discard had become the architect of his destruction.
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"You knew too much," he whimpered, tears finally spilling down his cheeks. "When you found that flash drive... I had no choice."
"No, Daniel," I let go of his jacket, stepping back into the safety of Adrien’s shadow. "You always had a choice. You just chose the wrong side."
