Chapter 3
Diane made it three steps before Natalie caught the back of her jacket.
“You’re not running after hurting Lily.”
“Let go of me!”
Diane twisted around, knocking a chair aside.
Guests moved back.
The music stopped.
Natalie’s husband signaled to the hotel manager, who hurried toward the ballroom doors.
Thomas remained completely still.
He looked at Mark as if afraid one sudden movement would make his son disappear.
Mark looked just as frightened.
“You’re alive,” he whispered.
Thomas nodded.
“I’m alive.”
“You knew who I was?”
“I knew the moment I saw you.”
“Then why didn’t you come over?”
Thomas’s eyes moved toward Diane.
“Because the last time I tried, your mother had me arrested.”
“That is a lie!” Diane shouted.
The hotel manager blocked the exit.
Diane pointed at Thomas.
“That man is stalking my family. Remove him.”
Thomas reached slowly inside his jacket.
Several guests tensed.
He pulled out a worn brown wallet and opened it.
Inside was a copy of Mark’s childhood photograph.
Not the same picture from the cupcake table.
This one showed six-year-old Mark sitting on Thomas’s shoulders at a county fair.
Both of them were laughing.
Mark took the wallet with shaking hands.
“I remember this day.”
Thomas’s face crumpled.
“You wanted to ride the red roller coaster, but you were too short.”
“You bought me those boots.”
“Cowboy boots. You refused to take them off for three weeks.”
Mark pressed his hand over his mouth.
I had seen my husband cry only twice.
The day Lily was born.
And the day his closest friend died.
Now tears ran freely down his face.
Diane looked around the ballroom and realized she was losing control.
“Mark, memories can be manipulated.”
He turned on her.
“I remember him.”
“You were a child.”
“I remember asking where he went.”
“He left us.”
“No,” Thomas said. “You moved Mark across the state while I was at work.”
Diane laughed bitterly.
“Because you were irresponsible.”
“I had a steady job.”
“You were a mechanic.”
“And you emptied our joint account.”
“That money belonged to me.”
“Half of it came from my father.”
Diane’s face twitched.
Thomas continued.
“You filed for emergency custody and claimed I threatened you. By the time the court dismissed the accusation, you had changed addresses twice.”
“You did threaten me.”
“I said I would expose what you stole.”
Mark looked between them.
“What did she steal?”
Thomas hesitated.
Diane immediately spoke.
“Nothing.”
Thomas reached into his jacket again.
This time he removed a folded legal document.
“I brought proof.”
“Why?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“You’re Claire.”
I tightened my hold on Lily.
“How do you know my name?”
“I have followed Mark’s life from a distance.”
“That sounds like stalking,” Diane snapped.
Thomas ignored her.
“I saw your wedding announcement. Lily’s birth announcement too. I never contacted you because Diane threatened to accuse me of hurting Mark again.”
Mark’s voice was cold.
“You let that stop you for thirty years?”
The words hit Thomas hard.
“No. Fear stopped me for a few years. Shame stopped me longer. But I wrote. I sent letters and birthday cards. Your mother returned some. Others disappeared.”
Mark looked at the envelope.
“This one didn’t.”
“I sent it through your college.”
Diane looked down.
Thomas nodded grimly.
“She must have found it before you did.”
Mark unfolded the legal paper.
His expression changed as he read.
“This is a trust.”
“Yes.”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”
“It should be worth much more now.”
Diane stared at Thomas with open hatred.
“You had no right to bring that here.”
Mark looked at her.
“The trust was created for me?”
“My father created it,” Thomas said. “Your grandfather. You were supposed to receive control when you turned twenty-five.”
Mark was thirty-six.
He turned the page.
“There are withdrawal records.”
Thomas nodded.
“Your mother claimed you were permanently disabled and needed her to act as trustee.”
“What?”
“I found out eighteen months ago.”
Diane lifted her chin.
“I spent that money on his education.”
Mark’s laugh was hollow.
“I paid my own student loans for twelve years.”
“You lived under my roof.”
“Until I was eighteen.”
“I fed you. I clothed you.”
“With money from a trust you told me didn’t exist?”
Diane moved toward him.
“You think raising a child is free?”
Thomas stepped between them.
“You took more than eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Gasps rose from the guests.
Diane’s eyes burned.
“That is none of their business.”
“No,” Mark said. “It’s mine.”
Natalie told the hotel manager to call the police.
Diane spun around.
“No police.”
“You assaulted Lily,” I said. “And if those documents are real, you committed fraud.”
“I barely touched her.”
Lily whimpered against my shoulder.
Thomas looked at her.
His anger softened immediately.
“Is that my granddaughter?”
Mark stiffened.
Thomas stopped himself from moving closer.
“I’m sorry. I know I haven’t earned the right to call her that.”
Lily peeked at him.
“You’re Daddy’s dad?”
“I believe I am.”
“Why didn’t you come to my birthday?”
His eyes filled again.
“I wasn’t invited.”
“I can invite you next time.”
Mark looked away.
The innocence of her answer made the situation more painful.
I rubbed Lily’s back.
“Sweetheart, why were you under the dessert table?”
Diane interrupted.
“She was stealing food.”
Lily shook her head.
“I dropped my bracelet.”
“What bracelet?” I asked.
“The pink one Aunt Natalie gave me.”
Natalie crouched and looked under the table.
She found the bracelet near one of the table legs.
Beside it was a torn piece of tape and the corner of another envelope.
Natalie pulled up the long tablecloth.
Three empty strips of tape were attached to the underside of the table.
Something had been secured there.
“What was hidden here?” she asked.
Diane looked at the exit again.
Emma, the waitress, spoke from behind us.
“I saw Mrs. Carter arrive before most guests. She spent several minutes near this table.”
Diane pointed at her.
“You are confused.”
“I’m not.”
“Why would I hide anything at a wedding?”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“Because you knew I was coming.”
Diane went pale again.
Mark looked at him.
“How did she know?”
“I called her yesterday. I said I wanted ten minutes with you.”
“At my sister-in-law’s wedding?” Diane demanded. “You planned to humiliate us.”
“I planned to give Mark the truth somewhere you couldn’t silence me.”
“So you planted the photograph.”
“No. I gave a folder to one of the catering staff and asked him to place it beneath Mark’s seat after dinner.”
Emma frowned.
“Which staff member?”
“A young man named Kyle.”
The hotel manager shook his head.
“We have no employee named Kyle.”
Thomas looked confused.
“He wore your uniform.”
Diane closed her eyes for half a second.
I saw it.
“So you intercepted him,” I said.
She didn’t answer.
“You took the folder and hid it under the dessert table.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you needed time to remove it without Thomas seeing.”
Mark looked beneath the table.
“What else was in the folder?”
“Bank statements,” Thomas said. “Court documents. Copies of every letter I sent. And a recent photograph of another person.”
“What person?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Your sister.”
Mark stared at him.
“I don’t have a sister.”
“Yes, you do.”
Diane made a sound that was almost a growl.
“Stop talking.”
Thomas’s voice shook.
“Her name is Rebecca.”
“No.”
“She was born two years after you.”
Mark backed into a chair.
Diane pointed at Thomas.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You told me Rebecca died.”
The ballroom went silent again.
Thomas looked directly at Diane.
“You said she died hours after birth. There was no funeral. No death certificate. You told me the hospital handled everything because I was out of state.”
Mark’s face tightened.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Thomas drew a breath.
“Rebecca didn’t die.”
Diane rushed toward him.
The hotel manager caught her before she reached him.
“You liar!” she screamed.
Thomas raised his voice.
“I found her adoption record!”
Mark stood frozen.
“You’re saying Mom gave away my sister?”
“I’m saying there is evidence she arranged a private adoption and accepted money from the couple.”
Diane struggled against the manager.
“I saved that child!”
“From what?” Mark demanded.
“From him!”
Thomas shook his head.
“You told me she was dead. You let me mourn her.”
Diane’s voice cracked.
“You had no money.”
“I had a family willing to help.”
“They hated me.”
“They knew you were lying.”
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Diane stopped struggling.
Her eyes moved from the ballroom doors to the dessert table.
Then to her purse.
I remembered the small bottle that had rolled out.
It was still on the floor near my shoe.
The label had been partly torn away.
I bent carefully and picked it up.
Diane saw it.
“Put that down.”
“What is it?”
“Medicine.”
“For what?”
“My nerves.”
Thomas stared at the bottle.
“That isn’t yours.”
I turned it over.
A name was printed in small letters along the bottom.
REBECCA REED.
Mark took the bottle from me.
His face filled with horror.
“Why do you have my sister’s medication?”
Diane didn’t answer.
Thomas took a step forward.
“Where is Rebecca?”
A police officer entered the ballroom.
Then another.
Diane’s knees seemed to weaken.
May you like
She stared at the medication bottle in Mark’s hand.
Finally, she whispered, “You were never supposed to find her.”
