His voice cracked.
“Dad stood ten feet away.”
I remembered.
Mark had toasted them at the reception.
To loyalty, he had said.
To family.
To a love that lasts.
I felt something harden inside me.
Daniel wiped his face with the back of his hand.
Then he looked at me.
“Where are they now?”
I already knew what he was thinking.
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“Don’t go there.”
“Mom—”
“Listen to me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I want to see them.”
“And then what?”
He didn’t answer.
“Exactly.”
I stepped closer.
“You’re angry enough to destroy your entire life in ten minutes. Don’t.”
“He deserves—”
“I know what he deserves.”
“And Jenna?”
“I know.”
Daniel began pacing again.
“I can’t just go home.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I can’t go to work either.”
“No.”
He
laughed once.
A terrible, empty sound.
“So what do I do?”
That was when I said the sentence that changed everything.
“We don’t confront them tonight.”
Daniel stopped.
He stared at me.
“What?”
“We let them think we know nothing.”
His face twisted with disbelief.
“You’re serious?”
“Completely.”
“Mom, Dad is sleeping with my wife.”
“I know.”
“And you want us to pretend?”
“For a little while.”
“Why?”
I looked at my father’s grave.
Because rage wants noise.
But revenge wants silence.
I turned back to Daniel.
“Because if we confront them tonight, they’ll cry, lie, apologize, delete messages, hide money, rewrite history and tell everyone we misunderstood.”
Daniel said nothing.
“So we’re going to understand everything first.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we find out when it started. How long it’s been going on. Where they’ve been meeting. Whether anyone else knows.”
Daniel stared at me.
“And then?”
“
Then we make sure neither of them gets to control how this ends.”
Something in his expression shifted.
Pain remained.
But beneath it came focus.
