The Sister-In-Law Season 2 - Episode 15 – The Burning Point

Daniel didn't go home. He drove to a cheap motel and checked in under a fake name, the scent of Eleanor’s perfume and the feel of her skin a poison on his body. He felt like a piece of meat fought over by two wolves, and he wasn't sure which bite had been more damning. He was no longer a player; he was the prize.

His phone buzzed. It was a text from an unknown number. She knows. She took my phone. I’m locked in my room. She’s talking about sending me away. It was Rita. She had found a way.

Daniel’s mind raced. Eleanor wasn't just winning; she was erasing the board. The article, the alliance—it was all for nothing if Rita disappeared. He needed a new move, something so drastic it would shatter Eleanor’s control entirely. He thought of the PI, Mr. Davies. He was Eleanor’s sword and shield. But every sword has a price.

The next morning, Daniel found Davies eating alone in a greasy spoon diner. He slid into the booth across from him. The man didn’t even look up from his eggs. “You’re trespassing,” Davies said, his voice flat.

“I’m a client,” Daniel replied, sliding a thick envelope across the table. “I want to hire you.”

Davies finally looked up, a flicker of interest in his tired eyes. He opened the envelope. Inside was ten thousand dollars in cash. “Your wife already paid my retainer.”

“I’m not paying you to spy,” Daniel said. “I’m paying you to deliver a message. To Eleanor.”

Davies snorted. “Not a chance. She’d ruin me.”

“She’s already planning to. I know her. Once this is over, you’re a loose end. Me, I’m just a problem. You’re a solution that needs to be disposed of. This,” Daniel said, tapping the envelope, “is a down payment. The next payment is double. All you have to do is tell her one thing. Tell her I have the original police report from her first husband’s ‘accident.’ And that I know she was there.”

Davies’s fork froze halfway to his mouth. Daniel saw it then—a flicker of fear. The PI knew something. He’d always known.

“It’s a lie,” Davies said, but his voice lacked conviction.

“Maybe,” Daniel said, leaning forward. “But will she risk it? Will she risk the world knowing that the man who saved her from ruin was the same man who helped create it? Deliver the message. If she calls your bluff, you keep the money and walk away. If she doesn’t… you call me. We’ll talk about your next retainer.”

That night, Daniel’s phone rang. It was Davies. “She wants to meet you. Tomorrow. Noon. At the sculpture garden in the city. Alone.”

Daniel arrived to find Eleanor standing by a brutalist steel sculpture, the autumn wind whipping her coat around her. She looked like a queen surveying a battlefield. Mr. Davies was nowhere in sight.

“You lied to him,” she said, her voice devoid of its usual warmth. It was all ice.

“Did I?” Daniel countered. “Or did I just give him a reason to believe the truth? You and I both know Arthur Vance didn’t just testify against your first husband. You were there the night he died, weren’t you, Eleanor? You helped him cover it up.”

The mask of composure finally shattered. Her face contorted with a fury so pure and absolute it was terrifying. “You have no proof.”

“I don’t need proof,” Daniel said, taking a step closer. “I just need him to believe it. I just need you to believe it. This ends now. You release Rita. You drop the restraining order. You walk away from all of it. Or the story I tell isn’t about a forgery scandal. It’s about a young woman who helped her lover get away with murder so she could marry a rich man and build her perfect little empire.”

For a long moment, she just stared at him, her chest heaving. She had been outmaneuvered, not with money or evidence, but with the one thing she couldn’t control: the past.

“You’re a monster,” she whispered.

“I’m what you made me,” Daniel said. “Do we have a deal?”

Her eyes flickered with defeat. She nodded, a single, sharp, jerky motion. “The deal is, you get Rita. You get your miserable life back. But you stay away from me. And you never, ever speak of this again.”

She turned and walked away, her posture rigid with defeat. Daniel had won. But standing alone in the cold garden, he felt no triumph. He had only traded one cage for another, and the keys he now held felt heavier than ever.

The war is over, but the peace is a lie. Daniel has his freedom, but he’s made a deal with the devil herself. What happens when a woman like Eleanor decides a debt is still owed?