PART 7 – I Tried to Find a Simple Explanation for the Money, but Every Answer Led Me Back to the Same House

I spent the rest of the morning looking through the documents.

Emily stayed beside me.

She didn't try to stop me.

She didn't tell me what to think.

She simply sat there while I examined every page.

I read the dates.

I read the amounts.

I looked at the account information.

I tried to find a pattern.

The payments had been made over a period of years.

They weren't all the same.

Some were larger than others.

But they had continued.

I couldn't understand why Daniel would have done that.

I couldn't understand why he had never mentioned it.

And I couldn't understand why the records had ended up with Emily.

I looked at her.

"Did you keep all of these?"

She nodded.

"Yes."

"Why?"

She looked down.

"I thought you might need them."

I stared at her.

"Need them for what?"

She didn't answer.

I looked back at the papers.

I knew I was missing something.

I knew there was a reason Emily had brought them to me.

But I didn't know what it was.

I felt as though every question I asked only created another one.

I looked at the address again.

It was still the same.

The house where Daniel and I had lived.

The house where we had started our marriage.

The house connected to someone who had been there before I met him.

I tried to imagine Daniel living there before me.

I tried to picture the years before our wedding.

I had never thought much about that time.

Of course he had a life before me.

We all did.

But I had never imagined that his past could be connected to something he had kept hidden for so long.

I looked at Emily.

"Did you know the person who lived there?"

She shook her head.

"I didn't know who it was."

I waited.

"But I knew the address."

I felt my heart beating faster.

"How?"

She looked at the table.

"I had seen it before."

I stared at her.

"Where?"

She didn't answer.

I could see that she was struggling.

I wanted to be patient.

I wanted to remember that she had been my friend for thirty-seven years.

But I was also tired of being the person who knew the least.

I had spent my life trusting her.

Now I needed her to trust me enough to tell me what she knew.

"Emily, please."

She looked up.

"I'm sorry."

I closed my eyes.

I didn't want another apology.

I wanted the truth.

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

I wanted to know why Emily had known enough to keep the records.

And I wanted to know why she had waited until after Daniel died to tell me.

I looked down at the photograph on my phone.

Emily and I were sitting together by the ocean.

She was smiling.

I was smiling.

It looked like a normal picture.

A picture of two old friends.

I thought about the way she had called it our last photograph as best friends.

I had laughed.

I had assumed she was being dramatic.

Now I understood that she had been trying to prepare me for something.

I looked at her.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

Emily was silent.

I waited.

She looked toward the window.

Then she turned back to me.

"There is something else."

I felt my stomach tighten.

I didn't ask her to continue.

I just waited.

Source: kaylestore.net

Click here to continue reading: PART 8: The Secret Had Been Waiting in the Past for Years, and I Was Finally Ready to Hear What Emily Had to Say