“Yes.”
“You decided what my future should look like.”
Daniel opened his mouth, but no answer came.
I closed the journal.
“You never trusted me.”
His expression tightened.
“I trusted you more than anyone.”
“No,” I replied. “You trusted your plan.”
He did not defend himself.
For the first time since I had known him, Daniel appeared completely lost.
“I never cared about the awards,” he said. “I only wanted you to see the person I saw whenever I looked at you.”
“But you never allowed me to fail.”
The silence between us stretched painfully.
Daniel returned to the chest and removed one final notebook from the bottom.
Unlike the others, nearly every page was blank.
Only the first page contained writing.
He handed it to me.
My fingers trembled as I read:
When Ashley finally believes she no longer needs me, my job will be finished.
My heartbeat slowed.
“The plan,” I whispered.
Daniel nodded.
“What I said on the phone was, ‘My plan is about to work. Ashley finally believes she doesn’t need me anymore. My job is finished.’”
My eyes filled again.
“I wasn’t celebrating because I had trapped you,” he continued. “I was telling my father that I thought the plan was almost complete.”
“You were speaking to your dad?”
“He asks about you every week.”
I lowered myself into a nearby chair.
Every terrible possibility I had imagined disappeared.
But another truth stood in its place, and somehow, it was more complicated.
Daniel had not spent years trying to ruin my life.
He had interfered because he loved me.
And that made the situation harder, not easier.
“I need to ask you something,” I said.
He nodded.
“If I had failed, embarrassed myself or made the wrong choice, would you have stepped in every time?”
Daniel remained silent.
His silence gave me the answer.
I stood.
“That is the problem.”
His shoulders lowered.
“I know.”
“No, Daniel. I don’t think you do.”
I began walking toward the front door.
“You believed in me,” I said.
“More than anyone.”
