Chapter 3
Claire found the old mail logs.
Nobody had asked her to.
That impressed Daniel more than if she had waited for instructions.
The Mercer estate maintained delivery records because so many legal documents, charitable requests, invitations, and business packages arrived every week.
Three years earlier, the system was mostly paper.
Boxes of logs remained in storage.
Claire spent the morning with another staff member searching them.
At noon she entered Daniel’s study carrying a binder.
“Mrs. Mercer’s letters are here.”
Daniel looked up.
“Hannah?”
Claire nodded.
Seven entries listed registered or tracked mail from Hannah’s Connecticut address.
Every one had been signed for.
Not by Daniel.
Not by his assistant.
By someone in Evelyn’s office.
Daniel compared the dates with the envelopes.
Five matched exactly.
Two envelopes were still missing.
“Who signed?”
“Mostly Mrs. Mercer’s secretary.”
That did not automatically mean Evelyn saw them.
Daniel refused to skip steps.
“Where is the secretary now?”
“Retired. Arizona, I think.”
Rebecca located her within an hour.
Her name was Judith Crane.
Seventy-one.
She remembered Hannah immediately.
“I always liked her.”
Daniel stood near the window while Rebecca put the call on speaker.
“Did you receive her letters?”
“I received everybody’s letters.”
“What happened to them?”
“If they were marked personal, they went to Mrs. Mercer.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Judith sounded confused.
“That was the procedure during the separation.”
“What procedure?”
“Mrs. Mercer said Hannah’s attorneys requested no direct contact.”
Daniel stared at Rebecca.
Rebecca shook her head.
She had never heard of such a request.
Judith continued.
“I assumed lawyers arranged it.”
“What did my mother do with the envelopes?”
“I don’t know. Some she opened. Some she put in the locked cabinet.”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“She opened my wife’s mail?”
“They were arriving at the estate.”
“They were addressed to me.”
Judith became nervous.
“I’m only telling you what I remember.”
Daniel softened his tone.
“I know.”
He asked one more question.
“Did outgoing mail to Hannah also go through my mother’s office?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Same reason.”
There it was.
The first major structural clue.
Evelyn had positioned herself between both sides of the marriage.
Not just Hannah’s letters coming in.
Daniel’s going out.
Rebecca ended the call.
“Still not proof she withheld anything.”
“No.”
“It proves she had access.”
Daniel nodded.
He needed to hear that distinction.
He was learning how dangerous certainty could be when grief was involved.
Upstairs, Lily was working with Dr. Melissa Grant, a child psychologist Rebecca recommended.
Daniel had already been told not to ask the girl what else Evelyn said about Hannah.
So he didn’t.
That evening Lily volunteered something anyway.
She was coloring at the kitchen table while Daniel made a terrible attempt at grilled cheese.
“Grandma said Mommy had another family.”
Daniel nearly dropped the spatula.
He sat beside her.
“What did you think when she said that?”
Dr. Grant had taught him to ask about Lily’s feelings rather than interrogate details.
Lily shrugged.
“Sad.”
“Did she say that more than once?”
“Daddy.”
Daniel stopped.
Too much.
“Sorry.”
Lily drew another purple line.
“Mommy letters say me?”
Daniel looked toward the study.
“Yes.”
“Good stuff?”
His chest hurt.
“Yes.”
That answer was safe.
Hannah’s letters did say good things.
A great many.
Lily smiled.
“Then Grandma wrong.”
Daniel stared at his four-year-old daughter.
Children sometimes reached emotional conclusions faster than adults because they had fewer reputations to protect.
May you like
He kissed the top of her head.
“That’s what I’m trying to understand.”
