PART 6 – The Questions I Had Never Asked My Best Friend Were Suddenly the Only Ones I Could Think About

Emily sat with her hands folded in front of her.

She looked at the envelope.

Then she looked at me.

"I should have told you sooner."

I didn't answer.

I was tired of hearing that.

I wanted to know what she had been hiding.

I wanted to know why Daniel had been sending money to someone connected to our old house.

And I wanted to know why Emily had been keeping it from me.

She took a breath.

"After Daniel died, I found the records."

I waited.

"I didn't know what they meant at first."

She looked down.

"I thought there might be an explanation."

I could understand that.

I had been looking for one myself.

But I couldn't understand why she hadn't told me.

"Why didn't you bring them to me?"

Emily's eyes filled with tears.

"Because I was afraid of what you would think."

I stared at her.

"Of what I would think?"

She nodded.

I couldn't believe it.

I had been grieving my husband.

I had been trying to survive each day.

And she had been carrying something that might have changed everything I believed about him.

I looked away.

I didn't want to say something I would regret.

But I couldn't pretend I wasn't hurt.

"You should have trusted me."

Emily lowered her head.

"I know."

I sat quietly for a moment.

Then I looked at the papers again.

There were still things I didn't understand.

The account.

The payments.

The address.

I needed to know how they were connected.

I needed to know who had been receiving the money.

And I needed to know why Daniel had never told me.

"Did you recognize the name on the account?"

Emily shook her head.

"No."

"Then how did you know it was connected to our old house?"

She pointed toward the final page.

"The address was on one of the records."

I looked at it again.

The same address.

The same house.

I felt as though I was looking at a place I had never really known.

I thought about the years Daniel and I had lived there.

The mornings we had shared.

The evenings we had spent talking about our future.

I remembered how happy I had been.

I remembered believing that we had nothing to hide from each other.

Now I was wondering how much of that belief had been wrong.

I looked at Emily.

"Did Daniel ever talk about someone who lived there before me?"

She hesitated.

Then she shook her head.

"No."

I waited.

She looked as though she wanted to say more.

But she didn't.

I felt a wave of frustration.

"Emily, I can't keep guessing."

She nodded.

"I know."

I looked down at the papers.

I tried to find something that would explain the payments.

There was nothing.

Only dates.

Amounts.

And the address.

I had spent so many years trusting Daniel that I had never thought to question the things he did.

I had never asked where every payment went.

I had never asked why he sometimes seemed distracted.

I had never wondered whether there was something about his past that he had chosen not to share.

I thought I knew him.

I thought I knew my best friend, too.

But now I was sitting across from her, looking at documents that seemed to connect them both to something I had never known.

I looked at the envelope.

Then I looked at Emily.

"Why did you wait until now?"

She took a long breath.

"Because I didn't know how to tell you."

I wanted to believe that.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the photograph.

The way she had called it our last one.

The way she had looked at me.

The way she had said I would discover who she really was.

I realized that whatever she had been hiding, it had been there long before Daniel died.

And I had been the only person who didn't know.

Source: kaylestore.net

Click here to continue reading: PART 7: I Tried to Find a Simple Explanation for the Money, but Every Answer Led Me Back to the Same House