Chapter 6
Aunt Rebecca had been my favorite person in the world when I was a child.
She taught me to drive.
She took me shopping for my first homecoming dress.
She sat with me after my first breakup and told me no man deserved the power to make me forget who I was.
Then my mother died.
Three weeks later, Rebecca disappeared.
Dad said grief had destroyed her.
He said she moved to London.
At first, she sent birthday cards.
Then those stopped too.
For six years, I believed she had chosen a new life.
Now Claire was telling me she had never left Texas.
“Where is she?”
I asked.
Claire hesitated.
“Emily, you need to understand something.”
“Where?”
“I promised her.”
“You promised my aunt what?”
“That I wouldn’t tell your father.”
Dad stood.
“Claire.”
Her voice changed.
“Thomas.”
Dad moved toward the phone.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“You don’t get to ask me that.”
“Please.”
“You told me she was dangerous.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“She was.”
“To whom?”
No answer.
I held the phone tighter.
“Claire, give me an address.”
“I can’t.”
“Then give me a city.”
Silence.
“Please.”
She whispered, “Denton.”
Only forty minutes away.
I grabbed my purse.
Dad blocked me.
“No.”
“Move.”
“Rebecca is unstable.”
“According to the man who lied about her being in another country?”
“She threatened you.”
I froze.
“What?”
“When?”
“After Margaret died.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It isn’t.”
“What did she say?”
“That you were responsible.”
“For Mom dying?”
“No.”
Dad looked toward Ryan.
“For Ryan.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He sighed.
“Rebecca believed I had deliberately pushed Ryan into your life.”
“You did.”
“Not the way she thought.”
“How did she think?”
“That I wanted Ryan tied to our family so he would stop threatening me.”
I laughed without humor.
“That is exactly what you just admitted.”
Dad looked ashamed.
“She believed I was sacrificing you.”
“You were.”
“I thought I could protect you.”
Ryan muttered, “You wanted to control me.”
Dad turned on him.
“And I should have destroyed you when I had the chance.”
Ryan’s attorney stepped between them.
I shouted, “Enough!”
I was tired of men deciding the truth was something they owned.
I looked at Claire’s name on the screen.
“Will Rebecca talk to me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Call her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t have a phone registered in her name.”
Vanessa whispered, “She’s hiding.”
Claire heard her.
“Yes.”
“From who?”
I asked.
There was a pause.
“Ryan.”
Ryan laughed.
“Oh, come on.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“You sent someone to her apartment five years ago.”
“I didn’t know where she lived.”
“You found out.”
Ryan shook his head.
“This is ridiculous.”
“What happened?”
I asked Claire.
“Someone broke in.”
“Was she hurt?”
“No.”
“What were they looking for?”
“The drive Margaret gave Rebecca.”
Ryan stopped smiling.
I saw it.
So did Vanessa.
I looked at him.
“You said Mom gave you a drive.”
“She did.”
“Apparently she had more than one.”
His attorney whispered something to him.
Ryan ignored it.
Claire continued.
“Rebecca believed Margaret had made copies.”
“What was on them?”
“Everything.”
“That word keeps coming up.”
I looked at my father.
“Everything about what?”
Dad slowly sat down again.
“Red Cedar.”
“The fraud?”
“More than that.”
“What else?”
He looked at Ryan.
Ryan stared back.
Then Dad said, “Insurance.”
My stomach tightened.
“The policy on me?”
“No.”
Dad’s voice was low.
“Policies on company executives.”
Vanessa frowned.
“What?”
Dad explained.
“Years ago, Harrison Development took out key-person life insurance policies on several executives.”
“That’s normal.”
I knew enough about corporate finance to understand that.
Dad nodded.
“It can be.”
“Can be?”
“The company receives money if a crucial executive dies.”
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“How much?”
“Twenty-five million.”
I stared at him.
“Twenty-five million dollars?”
“Yes.”
“And Harrison collected it after she died?”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The room became ice.
I whispered, “Did Mom know?”
“Of course.”
“And was her death the reason the company survived?”
Dad didn’t answer.
Ryan did.
“Yes.”
I looked at my father.
He stared at the floor.
I felt physically sick.
“The company was failing.”
Dad nodded.
“The payout saved it.”
“And Mom died at exactly the right time.”
“Emily.”
“I’m asking.”
“She had terminal cancer.”
“I know that.”
“She had weeks.”
“Then why did you clean the room?”
Dad’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I found medication that should not have been there.”
“What medication?”
He swallowed.
“A sedative.”
“Who prescribed it?”
“No one.”
“Was it what killed her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never checked?”
“I was terrified the insurer would refuse the claim if there was any question surrounding her death.”
I stared at him.
“You cared about the money.”
“I cared about four thousand employees!”
“You cared about your company!”
“I cared about you!”
“Do not use me.”
My voice exploded through the room.
“You keep saying you did things for me when nobody ever asked me what I wanted.”
Dad flinched.
I continued.
“I would have burned Harrison Development to the ground if it meant Mom got the truth.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because she asked me not to.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Dad looked at me.
“Your mother knew the company needed the insurance money.”
“No.”
“She knew.”
“You’re lying.”
“She told me not to challenge the claim.”
“Because she knew she was dying.”
“Yes.”
“Not because someone gave her something.”
“No.”
“Then why did she make recordings?”
“To protect you from Ryan.”
Ryan laughed.
“Convenient.”
Dad stood.
“She knew you had copied the company files.”
“She gave them to me.”
“She realized too late you were using them against us.”
Ryan’s expression changed.
Dad continued.
“She wanted you gone.”
Ryan stared at him.
“That is not what she said.”
“I heard her.”
“When?”
“The afternoon she died.”
The room went silent.
I looked between them.
“You were both with her that day.”
“Yes.”
“And Aunt Rebecca.”
Dad hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What was she doing there?”
“She came because Margaret asked her.”
“Why?”
“To make a promise.”
My heart tightened.
“What promise?”
Dad looked directly at me.
“To take care of you if I went to prison.”
The room disappeared around me.
My mother had been planning for my father’s arrest.
My aunt had been preparing to protect me.
And no one told me.
I grabbed the bank box and found the photograph again.
If I disappear, find Claire.
But it said disappear.
Not die.
Why would my mother write disappear if she knew she was dying?
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“Why did Mom write ‘if I disappear’?”
His eyes shifted.
“What?”
I showed him the photograph.
The color drained from his face.
“You’ve seen this before.”
“No.”
“You recognized it.”
“I recognized her handwriting.”
“Did Mom think someone was going to take her?”
“No.”
“Then why that word?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire spoke through the phone.
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward it.
I whispered, “Tell me.”
“Margaret wanted to leave Dallas.”
Dad closed his eyes.
Claire continued.
“She wanted to go into a private hospice under another name.”
“What?”
“She believed Ryan was monitoring her.”
Ryan shook his head.
“That’s absurd.”
Claire ignored him.
“She wanted three or four quiet weeks with you.”
My throat tightened.
“She wanted me with her?”
“Yes.”
“She thought I was in Boston.”
“She planned to tell you when you returned.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Because she never left.”
I looked at Dad.
“Why?”
He answered this time.
“Rebecca changed her mind.”
“Aunt Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She thought moving Margaret would create more danger.”
Claire interrupted.
“That’s not what Rebecca told me.”
Dad looked at the phone.
Claire continued.
“She said Thomas refused because he needed Margaret’s death documented at the family residence for the insurance claim.”
Dad shouted, “That is not true!”
Claire said, “Then tell Emily why the original plan disappeared.”
Dad’s face reddened.
“I was told the insurer might investigate if she suddenly vanished into an anonymous hospice.”
“So you stopped it.”
“Yes.”
“To protect the payout.”
“To protect the company.”
I shook my head.
The same answer.
Always the company.
Vanessa touched my arm.
“Emily.”
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
My mother had wanted to spend her final weeks with me.
My father had apparently decided an insurance claim mattered more.
I pulled away.
“I’m going to Denton.”
Dad stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
“Rebecca hates me.”
“Then your presence would be a problem.”
“She may lie to you.”
“So might you.”
His face fell.
I turned to Vanessa.
“You’re coming.”
She nodded.
Ryan laughed quietly.
“You two suddenly best friends?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“No.”
Then she looked at me.
“We’re two women who finally realized we were competing inside a story you wrote.”
Ryan’s smile disappeared.
We packed the documents back into the box.
I kept Claire’s letter.
The flash drives.
And the old phone.
The bank manager placed everything else in secure hold after the police agreed it might be relevant evidence.
As Vanessa and I walked toward the elevator, Ryan called my name.
I turned.
He stepped closer.
His attorney tried to stop him.
Ryan ignored him.
“Before you see Rebecca, remember something.”
“What?”
“She hated your mother at the end.”
Dad shouted, “Shut up!”
Ryan continued.
“Ask Rebecca why.”
I stared at him.
“Why did she hate Mom?”
Ryan lowered his voice.
“Because Margaret discovered Rebecca had been taking money too.”
Dad moved toward him.
The officer stopped him.
Ryan smiled.
“Your aunt isn’t some innocent witness.”
I shook my head.
“I’ll decide that myself.”
“You should.”
Then his expression changed.
Almost sympathetic.
“Ask her about the night you were born.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Dad went still.
Ryan watched him.
That told me the question mattered.
“What happened the night I was born?”
Ryan smiled faintly.
“Your father never told you?”
“Ryan.”
Dad’s voice cracked.
Ryan continued.
“You keep thinking this story started when Margaret died.”
He shook his head.
“It didn’t.”
I looked at my father.
He could barely meet my eyes.
“Dad?”
Ryan said, “It started thirty-four years ago.”
My chest tightened.
“The night you were born.”
I whispered, “What happened?”
Ryan looked directly at me.
“Ask Rebecca why your mother wasn’t the woman who gave birth to you.”
No one moved.
No one breathed.
I turned toward my father.
May you like
He was crying again.
And this time, he didn’t deny it.
