Out of the Shadows ✔️ [Completed] [Book One]

Chapter 64

I sit on my sofa and hold the envelope in my trembling hands. I take a deep breath and begin to pull it open.

The letter slips out of its cover and I unfold it. Daniel's rough scrawl covers the paper and I know that this is what I've been waiting for.

All of his secrets laid bare.

My dearest Lizzie,

Before I start to explain what a fool I have been, I just wanted to thank you for the cufflinks. They are the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever bought me. I wear them all the time to keep a part of you with me.

What a mess I have made of everything! I cannot even begin to put into words how sorry I am for what I have done to you. Please believe that I have regretted my actions every second since you left and I will continue to do so until the day I die.

I want you to know that regardless of whether you decide you want to be with me or not, you are the love of my life.

You are aware that I thought it was better for you if I gave up and let you be free. However, by the grace of God I now know that you have not yet moved on. So, I want to try and explain why I behaved the way I did before it is too late.

I do not expect, or dare to hope that my reasons will be enough, but I wanted you to have closure. Most importantly though, I needed you to know that my stupidity had nothing to do with you. Your only fault in all of this was falling in love with me.

The truth of it all is that I am a selfish man who, at the time, thought it would be easier to push away the only thing in my heart before you could hurt me first.

Before the report was emailed to me, I knew that Lucy had been unfaithful. I mean, who abruptly ends their marriage to return to someone they were with six years ago without an affair?

As you know, Lucy always maintained she only realised she was still in love with Aaron after she had made the decision to leave me. But I knew there had to be more to it. I just was not expecting the enormity of the deception.

Basically, my entire life was a lie... a show for the world... and I was the main star!

I wish I did not need to get a report! But my legal team, family and Oscar talked me into hiring a private investigator. They advised me that I needed to refute her claims to half of my money, house and future earnings. I had refused to do this and was prepared to let her have what she wanted. But then I met you and you made me realise that not everything had to be so hard - that sometimes love comes easily. I finally saw Lucy for what she is.

You see, you told me that I had saved you when we met, but the truth is you saved me. You brought me back from the edge and gave me the drive to fight for what was right.

I thought about attaching the whole report, but it is in excess of 60 pages and would literally bore you to tears. If you ever want to read it, please let me know and you can have my copy because I never intend on reading it again.

You already know that Lucy was a child star. When we met she said she had sacked her agent and that she wanted to take a break from acting because she had been doing it for so long. At the time I believed her, and was happy that she wanted to come along with me on set. However, they have found out that she was actually dropped by her agent because work had dried up and was basically blacklisted because of how difficult she was to work with.

The man I hired then discovered that she had never really ended her relationship with Aaron. They had just agreed that I was their mealticket because I was landing the big roles. There are hundreds of emails and texts between them planning and scheming behind my back when I thought we were in love... what a blind idiot I was.