Chapter 3 - Twenty Thousand Dollars
Daniel snatched the bank record from my hand.
His eyes moved quickly across the page.
“This isn’t real.”
“It came directly from the bank records.”
“How did you get this?”
“Nathan.”
Margaret immediately pointed at me.
“There.”
Her voice became almost triumphant.
“There’s your lover again.”
Daniel looked at me.
For one terrible second, I saw the old doubt returning.
I felt something inside me break.
“Nathan Cole is sixty-two years old.”
I opened my phone.
“He represented my father for eighteen years.”
I showed Daniel a photograph.
Nathan stood beside my parents at their anniversary dinner.
His wife and three grandchildren were beside him.
Daniel stared at the screen.
I continued.
“The hotel meeting was with Nathan, my father, an accountant, and two estate trustees.”
Daniel swallowed.
“The pictures only showed you and Nathan.”
“Exactly.”
Somebody had deliberately cropped them.
Jessica was standing near the staircase now.
Her face had become strangely pale.
I noticed.
So did Mark.
“Jessica?”
He looked at his wife.
She shook her head too quickly.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Not here.”
Mark’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you know?”
Margaret stepped between them.
“This is ridiculous.”
Daniel held up the bank statement.
“Did you send this money?”
Margaret stared at him.
“I have paid hundreds of people over the years.”
“To a laboratory technician?”
“He did consulting work.”
“What kind?”
Silence.
Daniel’s breathing changed.
I had known him for eleven years.
I knew when anger was beginning to overpower fear.
“Answer me.”
Margaret lifted her chin.
“I don’t have to explain my finances to you.”
Daniel stepped backward as though she had struck him.
That answer told him more than a confession could have.
Lily shifted against me.
I looked toward the door.
Whatever happened next could not happen in front of her.
“I’m leaving.”
Daniel turned.
“Emily.”
“You can call me tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?”
“A hotel.”
“This is your home too.”
I looked at Margaret.
“No.”
“It hasn’t been my home for a long time.”
Mark suddenly spoke.
“Emily.”
I stopped.
He looked like a man standing at the edge of a cliff.
“There’s something you should know.”
Jessica grabbed his wrist.
“Mark.”
He pulled away.
Margaret stared at him.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Mark actually laughed.
It was a bitter, humorless sound.
“That’s what you told me twelve years ago.”
Daniel looked between them.
“What happened twelve years ago?”
Nobody answered.
Then Mark looked directly at me.
“The first DNA test wasn’t Margaret’s first lie about this family.”
Jessica closed her eyes.
Margaret’s face changed.
Not anger.
Panic.
Mark walked toward the front table and picked up his car keys.
“If we’re finally telling the truth, then we tell all of it.”
“Mark,” Margaret warned.
But he ignored her.
He looked at Daniel.
“Ask Mom why Dad changed his will three weeks before he died.”
Daniel’s expression went blank.
Margaret whispered his name.
But Mark continued.
“Ask her why Lily’s name was added.”
The room became completely silent.
I stared at him.
“What does Lily have to do with Richard’s will?”
May you like
Mark looked at my daughter.
“Everything.”
