Married to my suspect

JONATHAN'S POV

I checked the time and closed my phone's notepad app. I was in a much better condition than this morning, and I'd used the time I'd been able to work to write all the different five digits combinations that could be gotten from 0 to 10 for the safe. From the looks of it, I still had hours of work ahead of me, except if I got lucky and got the correct combination in my first few trials.

I got up and went into my office to pack my bags. It was almost closing time and I wanted to save Danielle the trip here.

I carried my bag and opened the office door to find Danielle almost at my door, her bag on her arm. We stopped and stared at each other, Danielle taking in the bag in my hand.

"How are you feeling now?" She asked, lifting her hand to feel my forehead with the back of her palm. "Your fever has reduced. How is the tiredness?"

I removed her hand. "I feel so much better, although I'll still need to rest properly when we get home. Thank you. The water must have helped a lot."

She nodded. "I was about to check up on you." She said and got into step beside me. We got to the elevator and she pressed the call button. We got into the elevator when it arrived and stayed in comfortable silence as we went down. The elevator opened, and we left the building amidst goodbyes from the other employees that were down as well and probably wondering why we were out so early.

We both got to the car and I opened the driver's seat just as Danielle pushed it shut. I arched my eyebrows.

"I want to drive." She said simply, and I moved as she got into the car and closed the door. I shook my head and went over to the other side, laughing when she opened the door from inside.

"Thank you." I could see the slight smile that was pulling her lips. "If I knew all I needed to get the princess treatment was falling sick, I would have fallen sick since." I teased.

She started the engine. "Yeah right. That's why you've been overworking yourself all these while. Let's pretend that's the case." She replied with the same teasing tone.

I simply closed my eyes and relaxed into the seat, letting the soft music Danielle had put on lull me to sleep.

My eyes opened when a familiar song began playing. I patted my pocket, thinking it was mine, but Danielle picked up hers and waved it in front of me, her eyes on the road. "It's mine. Sorry. Did it wake you up?" She asked and pressed the power button to silence it.

"It's okay. You can take it." I asked when she kept on glancing at it ringing in her palm. She glanced at me once and nodded, answering the call and placing the phone at her ear.

I closed my eyes again, but the car suddenly lurched forward. I sat straighter in my seat, looking at Danielle who was staring shellshocked, at nothing.

"What's going on? What happened?" I asked her.

She shook her head and continued driving, at a much smaller pace. "Mom. Calm down. What are you talking about?"

The panic on her face increased as the person on the phone responded. "What's going on?" I mouthed, but she didn't respond.

Thankfully, there was a traffic light right in front, and the car skidded slowly to a stop in front of the red light. "Where did you hear that?" She asked and, after a few seconds, let out a sigh. "Alright. Where are you now?"

The light turned green and she continued driving. "Is something wrong with her? Where is she?"

She winced and glanced at me. Thankfully, there was a stop sign just in front. "Stop the car here." I ordered, and when she looked like she was going to ignore that statement the same way she had been ignoring my questions, I leaned towards her and pulled at the steering wheel. Seeing I was serious, she pulled into the stop zone, the phone still on her phone.

I opened my mouth to ask her a question, but she shook her head and released her seat belt. "I didn't mean to. I'll explain everything, so where are you? My office?" She ran her hand down her hair. "Alright, I'll come and get you soon."

"I have a reason… Hello. Hello." She sighed and checked her phone. She dropped it and put her head on the steering wheel.

"What happened? Is it an emergency?" I asked her when she finally raised her head and found tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." She sniffed. "My mom is very angry with me. I wonder how she found out." She finished in a murmur, eyes flitting side to side.

"So, what are you doing? Do you need me to drive?" I opened my door and went to the driver's side, opening her door when she remained motionless.

"Huh." She asked me confused.

"To the office. Your mom sounds like she needs help. Don't you need to get to her?"

She blinked and the tears that had gathered in her eyes fell down her cheek. "I'll drive you home first. You need to rest." She said and closed the door.

I went back and opened the other side, getting into the car. "I don't feel that bad anymore, and do you think you'll feel better if you can go and see her as fast as possible?" I replied, staring at her.

She shook her head, her eyes still on mine. "I'm scared." She looked away and cleared her throat then started the car and changed the lane so she was on the way back to the office, but I could see how her hands shook on the steering wheel.

"Is it something very serious? What happened with your mom?" I asked when we entered the last lap before getting to the office, and the fear on her face grew with each mile we drove.

She shrugged and glanced at me, eyes filled with resignation. "I'm so sorry. For everything."

I was still trying to figure out what she meant by that when she drove into the company's parking lot and killed the engine. She took a deep breath, fixed her stray hairs and opened the door. I followed her gaze to a woman that was dressed in a simple blue blouse and whitewashed jeans. The moment she got down, the woman began power walking towards her.

I'd never seen the woman before, but she looked eerily familiar and from what I could see of Danielle's expression, she was the same person she'd been expecting. I opened my door and came down, going to stand a few feet away from Danielle. I didn't feel too good about the scene I was about to witness as I caught sight of the woman's furious face as she walked towards us now, her face scrunching into some other expression in addition to the fear.

Danielle gaped at me. "What are you doing? Please go back inside." She pleaded as the woman got to her front. She looked at Danielle for a while, tears gathering in her eyes and falling down her cheek, much like what I'd recently witnessed with Danielle, before dragging her eyes from my wife and to me, anger and hate filling them.

"Is this it? The secret you've been hiding from me all this while. Making me look like a fool." She removed her eyes from mine and turned to Danielle.

"Mom." Danielle said in a pleading voice, and I froze, recognition filling me at once.

Danielle looked exactly like her mother, and I was a hundred percent sure her story wasn't like mine. How did she have two mothers? And who was the woman who had attended our wedding? What in Hades was going on? Was this the reason for her sudden apology?