Married to my suspect

DANIELLE'S POV

"Then it's unfair for me to be the only one to lay my secrets out. You're speaking about honesty. Do you think I've been in the dark about how you've been trying to deceive me as well?" I asked, my breath coming out in angry pants, daring Jonathan to say something else. The only reason he felt he had leeway over me and could tell me what to do was because he had caught me in my lie. I could do the same to him, the only difference was that I still didn't know what he was lying to me about.

Jonathan tightened his fist. "I think yours is the urgent one in this situation. Not only did I just find out the very reason I thought you agreed to me was false, you also lied to that same reason, in my presence. Excuse me if I think I'm the one being unreasonable here."

I took a deep breath, seeing the truth in his words but still unable to accept it. It just wasn't fair to me. "Fine. I agree I lied to you as well as to my mom, but I don't think it's unreasonable to also want to know the things you're hiding from me." I refuted and we both stared at each other without a word. Jonathan then took a deep breath.

"Fine. Let us both lay all our cards on the table. No lying or deceiving." He said, staring pointedly.

I shrugged. "Fine. It's long overdue anyway."

Jonathan glanced at me and I returned mine unashamed. At least now, the playing field had levelled. Regardless if I knew my reason would sound the most stupid and unreasonable for telling that kind of lie, I felt much better that I wasn't the only one that would leave my heart and secrets exposed. I was even more impressed with the fact that throughout our argument, neither our voices had gone above the average decibel. Probably because I had my Mom and Eleni in mind that could never find out, but I was impressed all the same.

Jonathan looked up the stairs as if also thinking the same thing I was. "Should we take this upstairs then. It's better to be safe than sorry, in case someone needs to get something here later."

I shrugged. "That's fine by me."

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I turned on the light and entered the office, looking around and remembering the first time I'd sneaked around the office, looking for the pen. It felt like ages ago, even though it had just been a few months.

The door closed behind me and I turned to see Jonathan also looking at the office, his gaze resting on his cupboard. "What exactly were you looking for that day?"

"If you knew, why did you keep quiet about it all along?" We asked at the same time. I sighed. "Do we have to roll a dice or something to find out who will answer first?"

Jonathan went to sit on the couch. "There's no need for that. Come and have your seat."

I glanced at the couch and went to sit beside him, leaving space between us. This wasn't going to be a pretty conversation, I knew, so there was no need to stay so close to him.

"There has always been a camera in my office and room. I'd preferred it that way in case I lost some important file or something." He shrugged and probably telling what I was thinking from my expression. "I disabled the one in my room the moment I knew you were going to move in. The office and room is the only place there's a camera."

I shifted in my seat, casting my mind back to that night. "That night, were you watching me, or did you find out later?" I remembered I'd gotten a phone call from him that had almost scared the living daylight out of me.

"I was watching. I will admit. I thought this whole arrangement was suspicious and since I didn't know you then, I often watched the feed. That night, I was just checking and saw you enter the office, so I kept watching."

I took a deep breath, knowing the next question that was to be answered. What had I been looking for so closely? I felt so stupid, so sure that I was alone, not realizing I'd been watched all probably monitored all these while.

"I was looking for a pen. The one I asked about yesterday." I rushed out before the courage could fail me.

Jonathan frowned. "Why?"

I clasped my shaking hands together. "It will be better to just start at the beginning. That pen had started it all. I hadn't been lying when I said I had searched everywhere for that pen to no avail. No picture, no mention, but I was so sure it existed."

"Existed? How? Didn't you say you had something similar that you lost? You saw in your dad's things after he died."

"I lied." I said, nodding. His look turned even more confused.

"What part?"

I grabbed the couch leather with my hands and shrugged, trying to hide the fact that I was dying inside at this reveal. "Almost everything. I didn't have the pen and thus, didn't lose it, but I did see it. A long time ago."

Jonathan turned in his chair until we were face to face, and he was looking me in the eye. "How long ago?"

I shrugged. "When I was five." I replied and fell silent. He arched his brows and I continued. "I was home sleeping one day when I heard some noise in the living room. I went out to see my dad lying in his own pool of blood, a strange man standing over him with a bloody knife. Even as young as I was, I could understand immediately that something was wrong."

Jonathan moved closer to me. "But I guess at that age, getting to him was more important than the danger the strange man was so he saw me and that was when I saw it. The pen. He kept on flicking it as he walked to me. He said some things and I passed out. The next time I woke up, my mom was back, and the man was gone. My dad was still lying in his pool of blood." I closed my eyes tight. I'd survived the retelling.

"Why do you still remember all that?" Jonathan asked in a pained voice.

I shrugged and tried to laugh, but it came out shrill and strange. "It's funny the way the mind chooses to remind you of memories, either awake or asleep."

"Is that what your dreams contain?" He asked, understanding what I meant.

"Every single detail." I said in a whisper. "No matter how much I try to forget, the image of that pen is branded in my mind, so I know it was the right one I saw. And that pen will lead me to the person that killed him. It was closed as an accidental murder when nobody came out and all their investigations yielded nothing, but I cannot take it like that." A tear slid down my cheek. "I can't leave it like that. I owe it to him to find justice for him. There was no reason for that to have happened."

Jonathan nodded and I continued. "As I got older and began to find ways to search, I looked for anything in my dad's past that could cause that. A loan, an unforgiven evil, but there was nothing. He had led a normal life with a wife and daughter as a construction worker. He had no debts, just a little shack we called home, and dreams of making more money to take care of his families. A life was taken just like that, in the comfort of his home, and all I kept hearing was there was nothing they could do about it since the investigations didn't yield any result."

JONATHAN'S POV

I took Danielle's hands when she had finished talking, warming the cold, shaking one with my warm one. The story she had just narrated sounded like something from a storybook, but I could tell she was telling the full truth, there was no single lie in each word she said. Even if I didn't know her that well, her shaking body and the tears that were running down her cheek were an evidence she wasn't lying.

"I understand." I said gently and she looked at me. I didn't know what she was looking for, but I nodded, and she burst into tears. I held her closer as she cried on my shoulder. I could feel my eyes also watering at her heartbroken cries. I could understand exactly why she had done everything she could. Wasn't I sitting on a safe and news I knew about the pen because I needed it to find who had killed Ethan? What a pair we were?

She cried on me for about fifteen minutes before her sobs changed to sniffs. She released me and turned her face away. I grabbed her face and stared at her red eyes, nose and flushed cheek. I shook my head. 'Are you embarrassed that you cried on me? After everything we've been through?" I joked and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

I stood up and grabbed the wet wipes, removing one and giving it to her. She took it with a muffled thanks and blew her nose in it. "You're not feeling well, and I had nothing better to do but cry on you." She said apologetically.

I waved her apology away. 'I pulled you to me and honestly… I didn't mind." I told her honestly and she ducked her head.

An uncomfortable silence ensued and I cleared my throat. "We've established that the pen was your main goal, and I'm sure your reason for agreeing to my proposal, but how did you know I had it on me? I almost never took it out."

She glanced at me with her tongue out. "I was looking for you in your office once and I saw the pen. It was after that I made the call making sure you heard."

I had to laugh. She would make a wonderful businesswoman, I'd never met anyone as shrewd and wise as she was. "That was smart. How did you know I would fall for the bait?" I knew how I appeared to my employees. There was no way, in retrospect, I would care enough to propose something as ridiculous as marriage because I wanted to save her, hopefully not, dying mother. I'd only done that because it was Danielle.

She shrugged. "A few days before then, I think, your mother visited, and she was pressing you about marriage, so I just took the chance and thankfully, you took it. I honestly didn't take you as that type of person."

I shrugged. I guess it was time to reveal my own truth. "Actually, it wasn't just the call that made me make that proposal. Remember, you had just started working for me a few months prior to that. There was another reason behind my proposal."

She looked at me with bright eyes. "What reason?" She asked.