I Agreed to Be Her Fake Fiancé at a High School Reunion — Then I Uncovered the Dark Secret She Was Running From
Chapter 4
Daniel and Emma left the gym early.
They sat in the car.
Neither spoke.
Finally, Daniel asked:
“Does your family know?”
“No.”
“Your parents?”
“No.”
“Anyone?”
“One person.”
“Who?”
“My college roommate.”
Daniel looked at her.
“She knows everything?”
“Enough.”
He nodded.
“What does Brad want?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why is he here?”
“He comes every year.”
“Why?”
“To remind me.”
Daniel stared.
“Of what?”
“That he knows.”
The silence was heavy.
Then Emma’s phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
She opened it.
Her face went pale.
Daniel took the phone.
A photograph.
Emma and Brad.
High school.
The image was innocent.
But beneath it was a message.
We should talk before the night ends.
Daniel’s jaw clenched.
“Delete it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because we need proof.”
She looked at him.
“Daniel, I don’t want this.”
“I know.”
“We can leave.”
“No.”
She stared.
“We’re not running.”
He handed the phone back.
“We’re going to figure out what he wants.”
The next morning, Daniel contacted a lawyer.
Not because he wanted revenge.
Because threats and harassment required documentation.
The lawyer advised them to preserve every message.
Then Daniel did something else.
He contacted a private investigator.
Within a week, they discovered Brad had been searching for Emma online for months.
He had looked into her company.
Her home.
Her business partners.
He had even contacted a former employee.
Daniel showed Emma.
She looked shaken.
“Why would he do this?”
“Control.”
She nodded.
“He always needed control.”
The investigator found another detail.
Brad’s medical practice was struggling.
He had accumulated debt.
His marriage was unstable.
Several malpractice complaints had been filed.
His public image was beginning to crack.
Daniel understood.
Brad didn’t want Emma back.
He wanted something from her.
But what?
Then the investigator discovered the answer.
An old photograph from the crash.
Not the accident itself.
A photograph taken afterward.
Emma had never seen it.
Brad had kept a copy.
So had someone else.
The original photographer had sold it to a local tabloid twenty years earlier.
The article had never been published.
Why?
Because someone had paid to suppress it.
Emma’s father.
Daniel looked at her.
“Your father knew.”
She shook her head.
“He told me the accident was over.”
“He was protecting you.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he probably thought you were already carrying enough.”
Emma cried.
For the first time, she wasn’t crying because Brad had hurt her.
She was crying because her father had protected her quietly for years.
Daniel held her hand.
“You don’t have to keep being afraid.”
She looked at him.
“What if people find out?”
“Then they find out.”
“What if they judge me?”
“Then I’ll be there.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because I’m not pretending anymore.”
Her eyes widened.
“What does that mean?”
He took a breath.
“I don’t know how to be your fake fiancé.”
She stared.
“Why?”
“Because I care about you.”
Silence.
Neither knew what to do with that.
