**PART 2**<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s message was only twenty-seven words long.<\/p>\n
But I would spend the next several months understanding it.<\/p>\n
*Daniel, call me before you do anything else. Please tell me you knew about Claire and Northline. Please tell me you didn\u2019t find out today like everyone else.*<\/p>\n
I stared at the screen.<\/p>\n
Northline.<\/p>\n
The name meant something.<\/p>\n
I had seen it before, probably on Claire\u2019s laptop or on one of the notebooks she carried around the house. For years, she had done what I casually referred to as consulting work.<\/p>\n
Freelance projects.<\/p>\n
Research.<\/p>\n
Strategy.<\/p>\n
Something involving nonprofit organizations and small companies that needed help growing.<\/p>\n
I had never understood the details.<\/p>\n
That realization arrived with an uncomfortable question.<\/p>\n
Had I ever asked?<\/p>\n
Across the table, Tessa lowered her champagne glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
Another message appeared.<\/p>\n
My sister, Megan.<\/p>\n
*Did you seriously not know?*<\/p>\n
Then my cousin Patrick.<\/p>\n
*Claire never told you about the acquisition?*<\/p>\n
My old college roommate, Evan:<\/p>\n
*Man, I just saw the Northline announcement. That\u2019s Claire, right? Congratulations to her. Huge deal.*<\/p>\n
The room seemed to become strangely quiet even though I could still hear silverware, conversation and the low instrumental music playing through the restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat acquisition?\u201d Tessa asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I opened a link Evan had sent.<\/p>\n
The page loaded.<\/p>\n
At the top was a photograph of Claire.<\/p>\n
Not the Claire from the courthouse that morning.<\/p>\n
Not my wife standing in our kitchen wearing socks and one of my old Northwestern sweatshirts.<\/p>\n
Not the woman drinking tea at eleven at night while telling me the upstairs faucet was dripping again.<\/p>\n
This Claire was standing beside three other people in a bright office with exposed brick walls.<\/p>\n
Below the photograph was a headline.<\/p>\n
**BRIDGEWELL PARTNERS ACQUIRES NORTHLINE STRATEGY GROUP; FOUNDER CLAIRE MERCER TO LEAD NEW COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION**<\/p>\n
Mercer.<\/p>\n
Claire\u2019s maiden name.<\/p>\n
I read the first paragraph.<\/p>\n
Then the second.<\/p>\n
Then I went back and read them again.<\/p>\n
Northline Strategy Group had been founded six years earlier.<\/p>\n
Six years.<\/p>\n
It had grown from a single-person consultancy into a sixteen-employee firm advising community organizations, family-owned businesses and regional foundations.<\/p>\n
Bridgewell had acquired a majority stake in the company.<\/p>\n
The article did not disclose the purchase price.<\/p>\n
It did mention that Claire would remain president of Northline and become a partner in Bridgewell.<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
Tessa had gone pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she was your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence landed harder than I expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she consulted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tessa waited.<\/p>\n
I heard how weak that sounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe worked from home,\u201d I added.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she had clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you think she did all day?\u201d<\/p>\n
That irritated me.<\/p>\n
Maybe because I didn\u2019t have an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never made a big deal about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tessa leaned back slowly.<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed again.<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to call my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside, the November wind coming off the river cut through my coat.<\/p>\n
Chicago looked almost metallic under the gray afternoon sky.<\/p>\n
I walked half a block before calling.<\/p>\n
My mother answered immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is Northline?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a pause.<\/p>\n
Not confusion.<\/p>\n
Disbelief.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hated the tenderness in her voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk to me like I\u2019m twelve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen don\u2019t ask me a question you should have answered six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped walking.<\/p>\n
My mother rarely spoke to me that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Claire tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
My fingers tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel, I introduced her to her first client.\u201d<\/p>\n
I said nothing.<\/p>\n
My mother continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember the neighborhood housing group I volunteered with after your father retired?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey needed someone to reorganize their grant program. Claire helped them. She was wonderful. They referred her to two other organizations. Then those organizations referred her to more.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered something.<\/p>\n
Claire at our kitchen table.<\/p>\n
Stacks of papers.<\/p>\n
A bottle of inexpensive white wine between us.<\/p>\n
She had looked excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I might actually turn this into something,\u201d she had said.<\/p>\n
I remembered kissing the top of her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great, sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I had returned to answering email.<\/p>\n
The memory lasted maybe five seconds.<\/p>\n
Apparently, her life had grown out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t anyone tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother became quiet.<\/p>\n
Then she said, \u201cWe thought you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer would repeat itself for days.<\/p>\n
We thought you knew.<\/p>\n
Megan thought I knew.<\/p>\n
My uncle thought I knew.<\/p>\n
Several former neighbors thought I knew.<\/p>\n
Even Evan, who had met Claire only a handful of times after college, assumed I knew because he had attended a conference where she spoke the previous year.<\/p>\n
Forty-three messages.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t forty-three people conspiring to keep something from me.<\/p>\n
They were forty-three people discovering, almost simultaneously, that I had somehow missed something enormous about the woman who had shared my home for twelve years.<\/p>\n
I turned toward the river.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is everyone messaging me now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe acquisition was announced at noon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our divorce had become official at 11:13.<\/p>\n
The article had gone live at noon.<\/p>\n
Forty-seven minutes.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she plan that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas she trying to embarrass me?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s reply came immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Claire called me last night.\u201d<\/p>\n
That surprised me more than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she didn\u2019t know what your relationship with the family would look like after the divorce, and she didn\u2019t want me hearing the business news and thinking she had hidden it from me. She thanked me for introducing her to that first client.\u201d<\/p>\n
The traffic moved behind me.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said anything about me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
That hurt too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked me not to choose sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
Of course she had.<\/p>\n
Claire had spent most of our marriage smoothing rooms after I left them.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said you were still my son. Megan was still your sister. She didn\u2019t want the divorce turning into a family referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pressed my thumb against the cold railing beside the river.<\/p>\n
Then my mother said something I wasn\u2019t prepared for.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe also told me the arrangement for the house stays the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat arrangement?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
This one longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat arrangement?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire has been paying them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a moment, I honestly believed I had misunderstood.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour property taxes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause after your father died, I was going to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father had died four years earlier.<\/p>\n
Not suddenly. Not dramatically. His heart simply weakened over time until there was more hospital than home in our lives.<\/p>\n
I knew my mother had struggled afterward.<\/p>\n
I also knew she had stayed in the house.<\/p>\n
What I did not know was why.<\/p>\n
\u201cI offered to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou offered once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you I could cover anything you needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when I tried to discuss numbers, you said you were in the middle of a quarter-end problem and we\u2019d talk that weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered none of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire called me the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
I leaned against the railing.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe paid your taxes for four years?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe created a plan. I paid what I could. She covered the difference. She helped me refinance the remaining mortgage too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I thought she had.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was again.<\/p>\n
I laughed once, but there was nothing funny in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody thought she told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s voice changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody thought you knew your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t return to the restaurant immediately.<\/p>\n
I stood by the river until my hands went numb.<\/p>\n
When I finally went inside, Tessa had paid the bill.<\/p>\n
The champagne was gone.<\/p>\n
She was drinking water.<\/p>\n
I sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout the company?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently half of Chicago knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn\u2019t fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re making it sound like Claire intentionally hid this from you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did hide it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tessa folded her napkin carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said she told you she was consulting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the same thing as building a company with sixteen employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tessa held my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut did you ever ask how it was going?\u201d<\/p>\n
That afternoon was becoming full of questions I wanted everyone to stop asking.<\/p>\n
I looked away.<\/p>\n
Outside the restaurant windows, sightseeing boats moved slowly beneath the bridges.<\/p>\n
People stood on the riverwalk in coats and scarves.<\/p>\n
Normal people.<\/p>\n
Normal afternoon.<\/p>\n
My marriage was over.<\/p>\n
The woman beside me was supposed to represent the life I had chosen.<\/p>\n
And instead I was thinking about Claire sitting at our dining room table three years earlier.<\/p>\n
She had been opening a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hired someone today,\u201d she had said.<\/p>\n
I had been checking basketball scores on my phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo help with Northline.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s my first full-time employee.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had looked up long enough to smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at you becoming a CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had meant it teasingly.<\/p>\n
Claire had smiled too.<\/p>\n
But now I remembered the smile differently.<\/p>\n
Smaller.<\/p>\n
Careful.<\/p>\n
I remembered another evening.<\/p>\n
She had asked whether I wanted to attend an awards dinner downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of award?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA local business thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had already promised Tessa I would meet her after a client event that night.<\/p>\n
I told Claire dinners like that bored me.<\/p>\n
She went alone.<\/p>\n
Another memory.<\/p>\n
Flowers on our kitchen island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho sent those?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA client.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finished a project.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
A framed article sitting beside the mail.<\/p>\n
I moved it because I needed the counter space.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
Claire saying, \u201cI\u2019m thinking of leasing an office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me saying, \u201cDo you really need that expense?\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve outgrown the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me answering, \u201cThen maybe your contractors should work remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped remembering.<\/p>\n
Tessa touched my hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pulled away without meaning to.<\/p>\n
She noticed.<\/p>\n
Neither of us mentioned it.<\/p>\n
For the next two days, I lived inside a strange reconstruction of my own marriage.<\/p>\n
People called.<\/p>\n
People explained.<\/p>\n
No one seemed angry.<\/p>\n
That made it worse.<\/p>\n
My sister told me Claire had advised her when she opened her bakery.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe helped me negotiate the lease.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never mentioned that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely mentioned that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently she had.<\/p>\n
At Thanksgiving two years earlier.<\/p>\n
I had been responding to messages from Tessa under the table.<\/p>\n
My uncle Robert told me Claire had helped his printing business reorganize after he lost two major accounts.<\/p>\n
A former neighbor told me Claire had connected his daughter with an internship.<\/p>\n
Evan told me Claire had delivered the keynote at a conference he attended in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was fantastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured you were proud as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
I said I had to go.<\/p>\n
There was no conspiracy.<\/p>\n
There was only accumulation.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of small moments I had classified as unimportant because they had not involved me.<\/p>\n
Three days after the divorce, I searched our old shared cloud drive.<\/p>\n
Most of Claire\u2019s folders were gone because she had moved them to her own account months earlier.<\/p>\n
One remained.<\/p>\n
**HOUSE**<\/p>\n
Inside were appliance manuals, insurance documents, paint colors, repair invoices.<\/p>\n
Claire had always managed those things.<\/p>\n
At the bottom was another folder.<\/p>\n
**TAX**<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
Receipts.<\/p>\n
Statements.<\/p>\n
Spreadsheets.<\/p>\n
Our finances had never been secret. We had separate business accounts and a joint household account, mostly because our accountant recommended it.<\/p>\n
I had assumed I made more.<\/p>\n
For years, I had made considerably more.<\/p>\n
Apparently, that had changed.<\/p>\n
Three years earlier.<\/p>\n
Then changed again.<\/p>\n
Then dramatically changed.<\/p>\n
Claire\u2019s personal income from Northline had exceeded mine for the previous two years.<\/p>\n
I sat in the dark office staring at numbers.<\/p>\n
I remembered telling Tessa, months earlier, that Claire would probably be financially frightened by the divorce.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe depends on the stability,\u201d I had said.<\/p>\n
The shame came slowly.<\/p>\n
That was its cruelty.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t one devastating revelation.<\/p>\n
It was the steady recognition that I had created an entire version of my wife out of assumptions.<\/p>\n
The following Friday, Megan came to my apartment carrying two coffees.<\/p>\n
She set one down and surveyed the boxes stacked along the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou unpacking?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always say eventually when you mean somebody else usually does it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
She winced.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You\u2019re probably right.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sat on the arm of the sofa.<\/p>\n
I had taken the apartment six months before the divorce became official.<\/p>\n
Tessa had helped me choose it.<\/p>\n
Claire had never seen it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does everyone think of me?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Megan sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you actually want an answer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled despite myself.<\/p>\n
Then she became serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people aren\u2019t judging you because you didn\u2019t know how successful Claire was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re judging you because apparently you\u2019re shocked she had a life outside you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That hurt.<\/p>\n
Megan handed me the coffee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you. Which is why I can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the cardboard sleeve.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Claire talk to you about us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout Tessa?\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan hesitated.<\/p>\n
The hesitation told me enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long did she know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes you think she knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she wasn\u2019t surprised when I told her.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had confessed the affair seven months earlier.<\/p>\n
Claire listened.<\/p>\n
Then she had asked one question.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you in love with her?\u201d<\/p>\n
I said yes.<\/p>\n
Claire nodded.<\/p>\n
She walked upstairs.<\/p>\n
She did not throw anything.<\/p>\n
She did not call anyone.<\/p>\n
The following morning, she told me she wanted a divorce.<\/p>\n
At the time, I considered her calmness cold.<\/p>\n
Now I wasn\u2019t sure what it had been.<\/p>\n
\u201cMegan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI promised her I wouldn\u2019t get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re divorced. There\u2019s nothing to get involved in anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t erase promises.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
My sister watched me.<\/p>\n
Then, quietly, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut before I told her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should ask Claire.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe won\u2019t want to hear from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan stood.<\/p>\n
At the door, she stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire left a box for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat box?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe gave it to me the night before the courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she wasn\u2019t sure she should give it to you. Then she said if, after everything was finished, you ever started asking the right questions, I could decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s in it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you open it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my car.\u201d<\/p>\n
I followed her downstairs.<\/p>\n
The box was ordinary brown cardboard, no bigger than something shoes might come in.<\/p>\n
My name was written across the top in Claire\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
Megan placed it in my hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are the right questions?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
She looked at me for a long moment.<\/p>\n
Then she said, \u201cMaybe start with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of asking why Claire kept things from you, ask yourself how many times she tried to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night, alone in my apartment, I opened the box.<\/p>\n
Inside were no photographs.<\/p>\n
No angry letters.<\/p>\n
No evidence of the affair.<\/p>\n
There were twelve envelopes.<\/p>\n
One for every year of our marriage.<\/p>\n
And on top of them, one small card.<\/p>\n
Five words.<\/p>\n
*These are the conversations we missed.*<\/p>\n
I picked up the first envelope.<\/p>\n
And for the first time since the courthouse, I understood that the biggest secret Claire had taken with her might not have been Northline.<\/p>\n
It might have been the record of everything she had tried to say while I was too busy believing I already understood her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**PART 2** My mother\u2019s message was only twenty-seven words long. But I would spend the next several months understanding it. *Daniel, call me before you … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18722,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions\/18722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}