"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution." – Oscar Wilde
With the revelation of her true identity, Emily succumbed to the revival of bitterness and betrayal. To verbalise who she had once been, to really acknowledge her truth, required her to address the cruelty she and her father had been subjected to. She hurriedly rebuilt the walls that her nineteen years of playing Mrs. Grayson had gradually worn down. "How do you want to play this?" The house was empty, but for her and Daniel, and their two elder children. Emily held her head high, and stood tall, in defiance of their fury. "Do you want the why's, or the how's first?"
"We're not playing a game of Scrabble, mom," Charlotte chided her mother, with a frown. "We don't discuss the rules because they're not up for debate."
"The truth," Daniel croaked, his voice a low whisper.
His pain was so evident, Emily buckled against it, "Daniel, why don't you let me explain in private? There are things, memories you'll recall that the girls won't have known about, or possibly even be able to understand."
"Why?" He barked, "So, I'm easy for you to manipulate a second time?"
"Soph, come on," Charlotte stood and plucked her sister out of her seat, too. "Let's give them some privacy."
"Thank you, baby." Emily was relieved that Charlotte's reasonable nature hadn't given out, yet, but the flicker of her smile wasn't returned. Their bond had been tarnished, before Emily had even been provided the opportunity to defend herself. She forced her mind to focus on Daniel, "Before I explain, please hear me, when I say how much I love you. Our meeting was no coincidence, but falling in love certainly was." It was imperative that Daniel accepted that much, at least. "Our marriage was never about revenge against your family. It wasn't about justice, either. I had all the evidence I needed restore my father's innocence, long before our wedding day. I married you because I loved you, Daniel."
"Is that why you came here?" He overrode her admission, "To ensure your father's name would be restored, and mine ground into dirt? Because, if that's the case, then you really are an over-achiever." Daniel laughed, bitterly. "My father has spent nearly two decades in federal prison, my mother's dead and you even knocked Charlotte out of the equation." The loss of his sister - their sister - sickened him most of all, "Did she even matter to you, or were you too hell-bent on destruction?"
"I mourned her, too." Emily defensively replied, "I didn't know about her paternity, not until..."
"...and, I suppose, you engineered her enlightenment," he scowled.
"Not like that!"
"You're the reason she started using, you know that?" Daniel groaned, exasperated, "So, what were your intentions for my family? How did you intend to make them pay for their crimes against your father?" He could barely look his wife in the eye. "Were you planning this from day one?"
Emily sunk into the sofa, beaten down. She had to start from the beginning; the night her father was arrested. "My father and I were home alone, when the F.B.I. raided our house. They came out of nowhere and snatched him away from me. I was sedated and, when I woke up, I was interrogated by an inexperienced child psychiatrist; Dr. Michelle Banks," she rose her voice, and Daniel recalled the name. "She had very little patience and no compassion for me. She didn't like children and made her dislike of me clear from the start." Emily nervously clamped her hands, "They wouldn't let me see my father. Reporters, like Mason Treadwell, were provided a free pass to interview me about my father. Then, when I read his book, I let them convince me that my father was a monster." Her story was even more horrific than Daniel had anticipated, yet he refused to let Emily wriggle out of her consequence. "My father endured life imprisonment and I was a prisoner, too. I spent my childhood in foster care and... when my second foster home burnt down, I was locked up in Allenwood juvenile detention centre with the spirited Emily Thorne as my cellmate."
"Jack's wife," Daniel presumed, and she nodded her head, in confirmation.
"We had a rough start but we respected one another. But, my problems with my father loomed over me and one of the wardens there offered me an outlet. She had contacts," Emily explained, "I survived two years. By the time I had turned eighteen, my father had been stabbed to death. Nolan met me, when I walked out the gates, and he brought the Infinity Box. There were letters from my father and diaries, personal accounts from his trial and conviction. I refused to believe it," she shuffled forward, "I hated him so much."
"But..."
"New Year's Eve, 2003." Emily whispered, "I read everything in that box, and I realised he was innocent. I came here. I worked your parents' party as a waitress."
"My mother would have been sorry she missed that," Daniel snorted.
"I stood inches away from the people responsible for my father's injustice. That's how I met Roger Halstead, one of my father's most trust friends, someone I knew I could rely on to help me expose everything." She choked on her recollection, his death still affected her. "But your father ordered his murder."
Daniel frowned, in rejection of her accusation, "They said he committed suicide."
Emily sadly, and slowly, shook her head. "I knew your parents had to be stopped, I knew I had to make them pay for what they had done. I went back to the warden at Allenwood and she directed me to the person I came to call my sensei; Satoshi Taseda." Daniel's eyes widened, in disbelief. "That's why he later became involved in Grayson Global's investment. He ran a Revenge school. In 2011, he deemed me ready for my mission." The shame started to set in and Emily croaked her words from the dryness of her mouth, "I was responsible for your parents' divorce. I exposed Bill Harmon, and the Senator. I kidnapped Dr. Banks, and I set fire to Treadwell's house."
His body stiffened, "Did you murder Tyler?"
The complete lack of faith disheartened Emily all the more. "Indirectly, perhaps. It was Takeda," she explained, "He knocked you out, when Tyler threatened to reveal my true identity to you. Daniel, there's so much I could tell you... but, most importantly, why I did it. Everything, it all led up to your mother's decision to assist the S.E.C. with their investigation."
"I suspect, my mother's death shattered your happily-ever-after?" Daniel pondered how his mother would have reacted to the revelation, or whether her intuition had served her well from the very beginning. She had always disliked Emily.
"Nolan was able to back-up and retrieve the evidence. When the shock of Charlotte and Victoria's deaths had passed, we re-alerted the S.E.C. to the evidence and your father was arrested." Daniel's eyes flared, expectantly. "But, even after that, I married you, Daniel. I loved you then, and I love you, still."