Chapter 12 - The Last Argument With RebeccaDaniel found Rebecca's notebook in the bottom drawer of their bedroom dresser.
It was blue, spiral-bound, and filled with the hurried handwriting she used whenever she was planning something complicated.
For eight months, he had avoided opening it.
Everything connected to her felt dangerous.
A scarf could ruin his morning.
A grocery list could send him into tears.
Her handwriting was almost unbearable.
But Caroline had urged him to look for any records Rebecca kept about Aster House.
So after putting Lucy to bed, Daniel sat on the floor and opened the notebook.
The first pages contained ordinary family details.
A birthday gift for Harrison.
A pediatric appointment.
A reminder to buy more diapers.
Then the entries changed.
Dad pushing sale again.
Trustee still refusing voting amendment.
Marcus present at meeting. Why?
Daniel turned the page.
Rebecca had drawn a line beneath a sentence.
He keeps saying the business matters more than anything.
Below it she had written:
What happens when family becomes an obstacle?
Daniel sat motionless.
He remembered the final serious argument he'd had with his wife.
It had happened less than three weeks before her death.
Rebecca wanted him to accompany her to a meeting with the trust attorney.
Daniel had been working long hours and waking several times each night to care for Lucy.
He was exhausted.
“I can't spend another afternoon fighting your father,” he'd told her.
Rebecca had stared at him across the kitchen counter.
“I'm not asking you to fight him.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“To understand what's happening.”
“Rebecca, it's a hotel company. We don't need the money.”
Her face had changed.
That was the moment he remembered most clearly now.
Not anger.
Disappointment.
“You think this is about money?”
“What else could it be?”
“It's about control. It's about what happens to Lucy if I'm not here.”
He had looked up sharply.
“Why wouldn't you be here?”
“Daniel, that's not the point.”
“Then please stop talking like something terrible is going to happen.”
Rebecca had gone quiet.
He had immediately regretted raising his voice.
But instead of apologizing, he'd walked out of the kitchen.
The next morning, they made peace over coffee.
He kissed her goodbye.
He told himself they would deal with the family business another day.
They never had that day.
Daniel closed the notebook.
His eyes burned.
For months, he had carried guilt over Rebecca's sudden death, imagining all the things he should have said.
Now another regret joined it.
She had asked for his attention.
And he had treated her fear as an inconvenience.
He opened the notebook again.
Near the back was a folded letter addressed to the independent trustee.
The letter was unsigned.
Rebecca had written:
I request an urgent review of the contingent-beneficiary provision naming Harrison Cross. My father has repeatedly sought control of the trust's voting interest despite clear objections.
A later paragraph made Daniel sit upright.
I am particularly concerned that these arrangements create a financial incentive for an outcome contrary to my daughter's welfare.
He read it again.
Rebecca had understood the danger in the clause.
But had she believed Harrison might physically harm Lucy?
The letter did not say that.
Daniel refused to invent certainty his wife had never expressed.
Still, he could not ignore what she had written.
He photographed the pages and contacted Caroline.
She answered despite the late hour.
“Daniel?”
“I found something Rebecca wrote.”
He explained.
Caroline listened, then said, “Preserve the notebook exactly as it is. Don't write on it or remove any pages.”
“Will it help?”
“It may help establish when Rebecca recognized the financial conflict. But we need the original letter, records of communications with the trustee, and context.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Caroline, I was supposed to go to those meetings.”
“You couldn't have known what would happen at the wedding.”
“No. But I knew Rebecca was worried. And I kept asking her to drop it.”
Caroline let him speak.
“I don't want to be that person anymore,” he said.
“Then don't be.”
After the call, he went to Lucy's room.
She was asleep with one hand resting against her cheek.
A pale-pink blanket covered her legs.
Daniel knelt beside the crib.
“Your mommy tried to protect you,” he whispered.
He waited a moment.
“And I promise I'm going to listen better.”
From the dresser, his phone suddenly lit up.
An email from Detective Brooks.
She had attached a formal notice confirming that investigators had obtained records from the venue's payment processor.
The records showed a fifty-thousand-dollar payment to an outside consulting company ten days before the wedding.
The description read:
Special Event Safety and Technical Coordination.
Daniel recognized the consulting company's name.
He had seen it on an invoice Rebecca complained about months earlier.
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It belonged to a business controlled by Marcus Vale.
And the payment had been authorized by Harrison Cross.
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