He swallowed.
“She asked me what would happen to you if I went to prison.”
I stopped breathing.
“I thought she meant Daniel,” Liam continued. “Then she showed me documents. My digital signature on transfers. My login. My approvals. She said if I reported them, she would make sure I went down too.”
The laptop fan whirred softly.
“I started collecting proof. Martin helped. I moved money into a trust for you and the kids. Not because I was leaving. God, Em, never because I was leaving. Because I was scared.”
His eyes filled.
“And there’s one more thing.”
He leaned closer to the camera.
“If Claire tries to take the kids, don’t let her. She and Daniel filed papers naming themselves emergency guardians if something happened to us both. I never signed them. My signature is forged.”
My mother gasped.
The room seemed to shrink around me.
“Us both,” I whispered.
Liam’s face crumpled.
“Emily, I think you were supposed to be in the car with me.”
The laptop blurred.
I remembered that night.
The rain. Liam at the door, jingling his keys. Me reaching for my coat because we were supposed to drive together to pick up takeout after dropping off documents at his office.
Then Claire calling.
Her voice frantic.
Noah had a fever, she said. Sophie was crying, she said. Could I please stay home while Liam went alone?
Noah had not had a fever.
I checked him myself twenty minutes later.
He had been fine.
I was supposed to die with my husband.
A sound came out of me that I did not recognize.
My mother wrapped both arms around me and held on as I shook so hard the laptop slid sideways on the table.
Liam’s video kept playing.
“I love you,” he said. “I love you more than any life I ever imagined for myself. Tell Sophie I saw every picture she ever drew me. Tell Noah I kept the red dinosaur in my briefcase. And Em… don’t let grief make you soft with people who counted on it.”
