“Or he came looking for the same thing.”
I pulled the black folder from my coat.
“What is this?”
“Your father’s insurance policy.”
“I know he had life insurance.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not that kind.”
He opened the folder.
Inside were photocopies of bank statements, property records, emails, handwritten notes, and photographs.
Several pages carried Ryan’s name.
Others carried the name of a woman I recognized from social media.
Vanessa Cole.
The woman Ryan had been seeing.
My throat tightened.
“I already know about her.”
Daniel’s expression didn’t change.
“Your father knew before you did.”
I sat down hard in a folding chair.
“How?”
“Because Ryan made a mistake.”
Daniel removed a bank statement and laid it in front of me.
My father had owned two rental properties in addition to his house.
I had always known they existed, but Dad handled them quietly and rarely discussed money.
Daniel pointed to a series of electronic transfers.
“Your father noticed repeated attempts to obtain information about these accounts.
Nothing was stolen directly from him.
But someone had gathered enough personal information to make him suspicious.”
I looked at the dates.
Then I saw an email address.
Ryan’s.
“No.”
“Keep reading.”
There were copies of messages Ryan had sent to a mortgage broker, asking hypothetical questions about how quickly property inherited by a spouse could be refinanced.
Another message asked whether inherited property could be used as collateral without the knowledge of other family members.
My hands began to shake.
“He thought Dad was leaving the properties to me.”
“He assumed it,” Daniel said.
“Was he right?”
Daniel gave me a careful look.
“That is part of what Robert wanted protected.”
I thought about Ryan leaving my father’s funeral to meet Vanessa.
I thought about his contempt when I questioned him.
Not everything is about you today, Emily.
Suddenly the cruelty felt less random.
“When did Dad discover the affair?”
“About six weeks before his death.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“He knew for six weeks and didn’t tell me?”
“He wanted proof before he broke your marriage apart with an accusation.
Your father was cautious.”
That sounded exactly like him.
Daniel handed me several printed photographs.
Ryan and Vanessa outside restaurants.
Ryan getting into her car.
Ryan leaving the Riverside Suites weeks before the funeral.
The betrayal was not a desperate mistake made during my grief.
