Chapter 5 - The Wrong Question
Doorway Daniel agreed to meet Nicole at Monica’s apartment.
Nicole insisted Officer Ruiz remain nearby.
Daniel arrived looking as though he had not slept.
He stopped when he saw Thomas’s ledger on the table.
“You went behind the mirror.”
“Yes.”
“I told you not to.”
“No. You panicked when I found out something was behind it.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“Nikki—”
“Don’t call me that.”
He lowered his hands.
Nicole placed the forged loan agreement between them.
“Did you sign my name?”
Daniel stared at it.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
Monica swore from the kitchen.
Nicole had expected the admission.
It still landed like a blow.
“Why?”
“The company was three weeks from defaulting.”
“You told me everything was fine.”
“My mother said the bridge financing would close.”
“So you committed fraud.”
“I intended to replace your authorization before final funding.”
Nicole almost laughed.
“That sentence doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
“No. I don’t think you do.”
Daniel looked at the floor.
“I panicked.”
“You moved forty-two thousand dollars too.”
“For payroll.”
“You stole from our emergency fund.”
“I was going to put it back.”
“People always say that after getting caught.”
Daniel looked at her.
Pain entered his expression.
“You think I’m some criminal?”
“I think I don’t know you.”
That hurt him.
Nicole felt no satisfaction.
She opened Thomas’s ledger.
“When did you first see a duplicate?”
Daniel’s face went gray.
“I was eleven.”
“Your father?”
He nodded.
“Tell me.”
Daniel sat down.
“There was a storm. Mom was downstairs. I heard Dad talking in his study. Then someone knocked at the back door.”
Nicole listened.
“It was Dad. Soaked. Furious that the door was locked.”
“What happened?”
“My mother put me in my room.”
“Did you stay there?”
“No.”
A bitter smile.
“I was eleven.”
He stared past Nicole.
“I watched through the banister. Two versions of my father argued. They knew everything. Same memories. Same scar under the chin. Same wedding ring.”
“What did your mother do?”
“She asked them a question.”
“What question?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She asked what he had done with the money from my grandfather’s trust.”
Nicole frowned.
“One Thomas said he invested it.”
“The other?”
“Said he had lost most of it and had been lying for eight months.”
Nicole understood.
“Your mother chose the first.”
Daniel nodded.
“The comfortable answer.”
“What happened to the second?”
“He walked toward the mirror.”
“Voluntarily?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“My father—the one Mom chose—told him he wasn’t real.”
“And?”
“The other man looked at me.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“He said, ‘Daniel, truth does not stop being true because your mother hates the messenger.’”
Nicole felt a chill.
“Then?”
“The lights went out. When they came back, there was only one.”
“The liar?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Yes.”
Silence filled Monica’s apartment.
Nicole closed the ledger.
“So your father’s duplicate told the truth.”
“I think so.”
“And your mother kept the liar.”
Daniel stared at his hands.
“My father confessed about the trust money years later.”
Nicole leaned back.
“Then your mother knows the second version can expose secrets.”
“Yes.”
“And last night your second version exposed yours.”
Daniel flinched.
“Yes.”
The answer changed something.
Nicole had been obsessed with identifying the real Daniel.
Thomas’s letter returned to her mind.
That is the wrong question.
“What else are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
The room became very still.
Nicole watched him.
Daniel realized his mistake almost immediately.
The light above the dining table flickered.
Monica looked upward.
“Nope.”
Daniel stood.
“Nicole—”
“You just lied.”
“No. I meant nothing like the loan.”
“What else?”
Daniel said nothing.
The apartment hallway light flickered through the front-door gap.
Then came three knocks.
Slow.
Measured.
Everyone froze.
Monica whispered, “Did you tell anyone we were here?”
“No.”
Daniel moved toward the door.
Nicole grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
Three more knocks.
Then Daniel’s voice came from the hallway.
“Nicole.”
Doorway Daniel stumbled backward.
Monica covered her mouth.
The voice outside continued.
“You asked the right question.”
Nicole approached the door.
Daniel whispered, “Don’t open it.”
She looked through the peephole.
Sweater Daniel stood outside.
Dry.
Calm.
His charcoal sweater unchanged.
But now he held something.
A small brass key.
He raised it so Nicole could see.
“The basement,” he said.
Daniel behind Nicole whispered, “No.”
Nicole turned.
“Why?”
His face told her enough.
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Sweater Daniel spoke through the door.
“Because the loan isn’t the worst thing he signed.”
