Chapter 3 - My Mother's Secret
"Mom?"
My mother, Susan, looked smaller than I'd ever seen her.
Caroline immediately shook her head.
"No. That's not what I meant."
"Then explain it."
Susan walked forward.
"Jason, I didn't steal anything."
"Did Dad think you did?"
"No."
"Then why is Caroline looking at you?"
Thomas answered.
"Because your mother knows who did."
Susan stared at him.
"You promised."
"And you promised Jason would never become involved with my family."
I almost laughed.
"What?"
Emily looked equally stunned.
My mother closed her eyes.
Years ago, she explained, my father had invested nearly everything we had in Bennett Development.
Thomas was ambitious, but the company had been struggling.
Someone began moving money between accounts.
At first, my father suspected Thomas.
Then he discovered the signatures authorizing the transfers had been forged.
The person responsible wasn't Thomas.
It was Thomas's younger brother, Andrew.
Emily's uncle.
Andrew had gambling debts and had secretly siphoned money from the company.
When my father discovered it, Andrew begged him for forty-eight hours.
Thomas wanted to call the police.
My father hesitated because Andrew had a wife and a young son.
"What does Mom have to do with it?"
Susan's eyes filled with tears.
"Your father told me everything."
"And?"
"And I begged him to walk away."
"Why?"
"Because Andrew threatened us."
Emily gasped.
Susan continued.
"He knew where you went to school. He knew when I worked. He knew our address."
I was twelve years old at the time.
My father hadn't been protecting an investment.
He'd been protecting me.
"What happened October seventeenth?"
Thomas answered.
"Michael came to my house. He had copies of everything. He said he was going to the authorities the next morning."
"And Andrew?"
"He found out."
"How?"
Thomas looked ashamed.
"Because I told him."
My fists tightened.
"I thought I could convince him to confess."
Instead, Andrew disappeared.
Hours later, my father left the Bennett house.
The next morning, police informed us his car had gone off the highway.
The official investigation found no evidence of another vehicle.
Andrew left the state three days later.
"And nobody thought that was suspicious?"
"We did," Susan said.
"But?"
"There was no proof."
I looked at Emily.
"What did you discover six months ago?"
She wiped her tears.
"A box in Dad's office."
Inside were my father's original notes, bank statements and a photograph.
"What photograph?"
Daniel stood and removed his phone.
"I have a copy."
He showed me.
The photograph had been taken outside a gas station.
My father's car was visible.
Behind it was another vehicle.
A dark pickup truck.
Daniel zoomed in.
The license plate was partially visible.
Thomas whispered, "Andrew's truck."
My mouth went dry.
"You think he followed my father?"
"We don't know," Emily said.
"Why didn't you go to the police?"
"We did."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"Two months ago."
That stopped me.
Emily had secretly taken the documents to an attorney.
The attorney advised her to contact a detective.
She had.
The investigation had quietly reopened.
Ryan knew because Daniel had confided in him three days before the wedding.
"Then why stop the wedding?" I asked.
Ryan looked at Emily.
"Because yesterday something happened."
Emily went pale again.
"What happened?"
Ryan reached for his phone.
"Daniel received a message."
He showed it to me.
It contained only one sentence.
STOP DIGGING INTO MICHAEL CARTER OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL DIE.
Emily covered her mouth.
"You never showed me that."
"I didn't want you involved," Daniel said.
"Too late."
I read the message again.
My father's name.
A threat.
After twelve years.
"Who sent it?"
"Unknown number."
Thomas suddenly sat down.
"What?"
He rubbed his forehead.
"Andrew."
"You don't know that."
"I know my brother."
"Where is he?"
Thomas looked up.
"That's the problem."
"What problem?"
"Andrew died four years ago."
The entire theory collapsed in one sentence.
If Andrew was dead, he couldn't have sent the message.
Unless someone else had been involved.
Ryan looked at me.
"That's why I stopped the wedding."
"You thought Emily was involved?"
"No. I thought someone here might be."
I looked across the reception.
Friends.
Relatives.
Employees.
People who had known both families.
Somebody had sent that message yesterday.
Somebody knew we were investigating.
Then Daniel's phone buzzed.
He looked down.
His expression changed.
"What?"
He showed me.
Another message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
Below it was a photograph.
Taken through the open side of the reception tent.
A photograph of us.
Right now.
May you like
Someone was watching the wedding.
And whoever had threatened us wasn't twelve years in the past. They were close enough to see us standing together.
