Chapter 5 - The Night Daniel Went to Chloe
The police reached Chloe’s apartment before I could convince myself not to drive there.
Rachel was furious when I told her I had already called.
“Calling was correct.”
She said.
“Going there would not be.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You put your shoes on.”
I looked down.
She had caught me.
My mother stood beside the kitchen counter holding my car keys.
“I confiscated these.”
Rachel sighed through the phone.
“Good.”
Twenty-six minutes after the video call ended, a police officer called me.
He asked if I was Jennifer Mercer.
I said yes.
He asked why I believed Chloe might be in danger.
I explained the call.
He asked about Daniel.
I told him about the divorce filing and the confrontation.
He asked whether Daniel had ever physically hurt me.
I thought about my wrist at the baptism.
Then about all the years before it.
“No.”
I paused.
“Not before tonight.”
He asked if Daniel owned weapons.
“No.”
“Has he threatened you?”
“Not directly.”
“Do you have any reason to believe he is violent?”
I looked toward my sleeping daughter.
“I have reason to believe I don’t know him.”
The officer was quiet.
Then he said something that made my stomach tighten.
“Mr. Mercer is not currently at the residence.”
“What about Chloe?”
“She is safe.”
“Was he there?”
“She says he came by.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“She says no.”
“Then why did the call end?”
The officer paused.
“She doesn’t want to make a report.”
I almost dropped the phone.
“What?”
“She says there was a misunderstanding.”
“No.”
“Mrs. Mercer.”
“I heard him.”
“She is declining further assistance.”
I closed my eyes.
“Can I speak to her?”
“She said she doesn’t want to speak with anyone right now.”
Of course she didn’t.
Daniel had reached her.
And whatever he said had worked.
After the call ended, I sat at my mother’s kitchen table.
Rachel was still on speaker.
“He scared her.”
I said.
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“We need facts.”
“I heard him inside her apartment.”
“That does not establish coercion.”
“She called me terrified.”
“Yes.”
Rachel softened slightly.
“And we preserve that.”
My phone buzzed.
Daniel.
I ignored it.
Then a text arrived.
YOU CALLED THE POLICE ON ME?
Another.
YOU ARE LOSING CONTROL.
Another.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOUR ATTORNEY WANTS.
Then one more.
CHLOE TOLD THEM YOU’RE HARASSING HER.
I stared at the screen.
Rachel said my name.
“Do not answer.”
I didn’t.
The next morning, my mother took the day off work.
Michael came over before seven.
Rachel arranged for a locksmith and a licensed process server to meet us at the house.
A temporary order gave me access to retrieve personal belongings and Lily’s necessities.
Daniel was prohibited from removing financial records.
He was not prohibited from being there.
Rachel insisted we request a police civil standby.
Daniel was not home when we arrived.
His car was gone.
The front door looked normal.
My key still worked.
Inside, the house smelled like the lilies from the baptism because I had brought several arrangements home the night before the party.
The quiet felt wrong.
I stood in the foyer.
Three months earlier, Daniel had carried our newborn through that doorway.
He kissed my forehead.
He told me we were finally a family.
Now I wondered whether he had already transferred the house at that point.
Michael touched my shoulder.
“Where’s the nursery?”
“Upstairs.”
The officer accompanied us.
Rachel stayed downstairs with the locksmith and Marcus.
I walked into Lily’s room.
Everything looked untouched.
The pale green curtains.
The rocking chair.
The stack of clean blankets.
The wooden letters spelling LILY above the crib.
I looked at the changing table.
Bottom drawer.
I pulled it open.
Diapers.
Wipes.
Extra onesies.
Nothing unusual.
Michael knelt beside me.
“False panel?”
“That’s what she said.”
We emptied the drawer.
I ran my hand along the bottom.
At first, I found nothing.
Then my fingernail caught a tiny edge near the back.
I pressed it.
A thin panel lifted.
My heart started pounding.
Inside was a black envelope.
Michael looked at me.
“Don’t touch it.”
The officer put on gloves.
He removed the envelope and handed it to Rachel when she came upstairs.
She opened it carefully.
Inside were copies of birth certificates.
Two of them.
The first was Lily’s.
I didn’t understand.
Then Rachel unfolded the second.
A baby boy.
Noah Bennett.
Born five weeks after Lily.
Mother: Chloe Bennett.
Father: blank.
I stared at it.
“That’s Chloe’s baby?”
Rachel nodded.
The envelope contained more.
A paternity testing form.
Unsigned.
A private laboratory invoice.
And several photographs.
Daniel holding Noah.
Daniel kissing Chloe’s forehead in a hospital room.
Daniel asleep in a chair with the newborn on his chest.
One photograph had been taken twelve days after Lily was born.
I remembered that day.
Daniel told me he had a mandatory client meeting.
I had been bleeding heavily.
Lily had cried for four hours.
I called him six times.
He did not answer.
Now I knew why.
My hand shook.
Michael swore.
Rachel placed the photographs back.
“Jennifer.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“I am.”
I wasn’t.
But I could not collapse in the nursery.
Not while there were still things to find.
Another paper lay inside the envelope.
A handwritten note.
I recognized Daniel’s handwriting.
MARGARET — DO NOT FILE UNTIL TEST IS COMPLETE.
IF RESULTS CONFIRM, WE MOVE TO PHASE TWO.
My chest tightened.
“Margaret.”
Michael looked at me.
“His mother?”
Rachel photographed the note.
“There’s no surname.”
“It’s her.”
I knew it.
“Phase two of what?”
Nobody answered.
Then Marcus appeared in the doorway.
“You need to come downstairs.”
Rachel looked at him.
“What happened?”
“I found the office safe.”
I had forgotten Daniel even had one.
It was built behind a framed photograph in his office.
Marcus had located it because the wall was warmer in one spot when he used a handheld thermal reader.
The safe was locked.
The temporary order did not automatically allow us to force it open.
But something else sat on Daniel’s desk.
A courier envelope addressed to him.
It had been delivered that morning.
The sender was a private genetic testing laboratory.
I stopped breathing.
“Paternity results?”
Marcus nodded.
“The envelope is sealed.”
Rachel shook her head.
“We do not open his mail.”
I stared at it.
My entire body wanted to rip it apart.
I didn’t.
Instead, Rachel photographed it in place.
Then a sound came from the foyer.
The front door opened.
Daniel’s voice echoed through the house.
“What the hell are you doing in my home?”
The officer moved downstairs.
Michael stepped in front of me.
Rachel followed.
I stayed in the nursery for one second longer.
Then I looked down at the false compartment.
Something white caught my eye in the deepest corner.
A small memory card.
I picked it up with a tissue.
It had three words written on the label.
LILY — NIGHT ONE.
My skin prickled.
I called Rachel back.
She saw it.
Her face tightened.
“Do not insert that into anything here.”
Daniel shouted downstairs.
“You have no right to search my office.”
Then he called my name.
“Jennifer!”
I placed the memory card into an evidence bag Marcus handed me.
Daniel’s footsteps started up the stairs.
The officer ordered him to stop.
He did.
Then his voice came through the hallway.
“You found the nursery, didn’t you?”
My blood went cold.
He knew.
I stepped into view.
Daniel stood at the bottom of the staircase.
He looked up at me.
His eyes moved to the evidence bag in my hand.
For the first time that morning, he smiled.
May you like
“You really should watch that recording before you decide who the villain is.”
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