And from the expression on his face, Rachel understood that he knew exactly what she had just learned.

He slipped the phone into his pocket.

“Rachel,” he said quietly.

Behind him, Lucas and Chloe were still laughing in the kitchen.

Rachel stepped down one stair.

“What have you been hiding?”

Her father’s expression shifted.

Not guilt.

Not surprise.

Something even more unsettling.

Relief.

As though he had spent years waiting for her to finally ask.

“Your husband,” he said, “was never supposed to discover it.”

Rachel froze.

“Discover what?”

Her father glanced toward the kitchen before lowering his voice.

“That the thirty-eight thousand dollars wasn’t the first money he took.”

Rachel tightened her grip on the banister.

“He was trying to put it back.”

A cold pressure settled beneath her ribs.

“Put what back?”

Her father