“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.
My husband had died with people believing he had destroyed everything. I had lived beside that ruin. Emma had grown up under its shadow. And this man had known the truth all along.
“So you let him carry the blame. Even when it was obvious the business couldn’t be saved, even when he died, you let Joe carry everything.”
Daniel’s face crumpled in a way I had never seen before. “Yes.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him. I wanted five minutes with my husband so I could ask him why—why he made that choice, why he left me holding a lie, why he thought I wasn’t strong enough to know the truth.
Instead, I sat there shaking.
“My son is why I came,” Daniel said after a moment. “When I realized your daughter was the one who helped Caleb, I felt ashamed in a way I haven’t allowed myself to feel in years. A child showed more courage than I did. She saw someone struggling and chose to act, even when it cost her.”
“She’s been raised right,” I said.
