He started mixing batter.
After several minutes she climbed onto a stool.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Are you mad?”
“No.”
“At me?”
Daniel put down the whisk.
“No.”
“You were yesterday.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Because you thought I broke Grandpa’s horse.”
“Yes.”
“I told you I didn’t.”
“I know.”
She looked at the counter.
“Why didn’t you believe me?”
There was no answer that made him look better.
So he gave her the true one.
“Because I had started believing Natalie before I listened to you.”
“Why?”
Daniel sat across from her.
“Because she was an adult.”
Lily frowned.
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
“Adults lie.”
“Yes.”
“Kids too.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Daniel smiled painfully.
“So I was wrong.”
She looked at him.
“You always say lying makes things worse.”
“I do.”
“You said I lied about the bracelet.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t.”
His throat tightened.
“I believe you.”
“Now.”
One word.
Daniel almost broke.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Now.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
“What about before?”
“I can’t change before.”
She wiped one cheek.
“Grandpa says people say that when they want you to stop being mad.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“That sounds like Grandpa.”
“Are you saying it like that?”
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“I’m saying I cannot go backward, so I’m going to have to prove something going forward.”
“What?”
“That you can tell me things even when they’re hard.”
Lily looked doubtful.
“That sounds like therapy.”
Daniel blinked.
“Who taught you that phrase?”
“Mom.”
The answer surprised him.
Lily’s mother, Sarah Hayes, had died four years earlier from complications following a brain aneurysm.
Lily was only four.
She remembered fragments.
Songs.
Perfume.
The way Sarah cut sandwiches diagonally.
Apparently she remembered sarcasm too.
Daniel smiled.
“That definitely sounds like her.”
Lily looked toward the pancake bowl.
“Can I have chocolate chips?”
“Yes.”
“Lots.”
“Within reason.”
“That means no.”
Daniel almost said something light.
Then noticed she had smiled.
Just a little.
He added too many chocolate chips.
Over the next week, the situation moved faster than Daniel could emotionally follow.
Natalie hired an attorney.
Daniel hired two.
One for the marriage.
One because Jonathan insisted any possible financial crime connected to a family trust required independent counsel.
Richard’s lawyer preserved the forged amendment, envelope and birthday recording.
Police became involved only after Jonathan consulted with prosecutors.
Daniel hated the idea.
He hated even more what investigators found.
Natalie had not worked alone.
The metadata in the forged trust document led to a laptop belonging to a financial planner named Grant Mercer.
Grant was Daniel and Natalie’s investment adviser.
He had been recommended by Natalie eighteen months earlier.
At the time, Daniel barely questioned it.
Grant managed accounts for several wealthy families and came with excellent references.
Now investigators found he had met privately with Natalie at least sixteen times.