Emily.
His ex-wife. The one he had kicked out after accusing her of treason and theft. The one to whom he had never given the slightest chance to explain himself.
The twins have her cheekbones, her light hair, her familiar smile. It's hard to deny the obvious, even from the seat of the vehicle. Ashley rolls down her window and throws a bill at Emily with a condescending smile. Emily doesn't bend down to pick it up. She stares at Michael. Without rage. With a deep sadness, that of someone whom the person she believed in most betrayed without return.
That night, Michael doesn't sleep at all.
The revelations that collapse the lies
The next dawn, he calls on a private detective: David Reynolds. Three days passed, and then he called back in an unusually tense voice.
"Michael, sit down."
What he learns devastates him: eleven months earlier, Emily had been hospitalized during her pregnancy. She had passed on Michael's contact information as an emergency contact — his personal phone, his office, his home. However, he had never received a single call.
Because someone had intercepted everything.
