Chapter 2
I stood with my hand on the doorknob, staring at the message until the screen dimmed.
Twenty-five thousand dollars.
Ashley did not have twenty-five thousand dollars.
At least, she wasn't supposed to.
She had graduated less than a year earlier.
She worked in marketing for a small company downtown.
She still called me whenever her car made a strange noise because she was terrified a repair would wipe out her savings.
Three months ago, I had quietly paid the remaining balance on her student loan as an engagement gift.
She cried when I told her.
She hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe.
“You've already done too much for me, Dad.”
Now a man who had vanished from her life claimed she had offered him twenty-five thousand dollars just to show his face.
My phone rang again.
Ashley.
I let it ring twice before answering.
“Dad?”
Her voice was smaller now.
“Are you coming?”
I looked again at Kevin's message.
“I'm on my way.”
I hung up.
I didn't mention the money.
Not yet.
The restaurant was twenty minutes away.
I made it there in fifteen.
When I walked through the doors, the party didn't feel like a celebration anymore.
Half the guests had already left.
The champagne glasses were mostly empty.
The photographer was packing his equipment near the back wall.
Susan stood beside Ashley near the entrance.
Ashley was still wearing the pale blue dress she had spent two weeks choosing.
Her mascara had run beneath her eyes.
The second she saw me, she rushed forward.
“Dad.”
She wrapped her arms around me.
For one terrible moment, instinct took over.
My arms lifted.
I almost hugged her back.
Then I remembered three days earlier.
He's my stepfather.
I remembered sitting alone in my own house while another man was supposed to stand beside my daughter at a party I had paid for.
And I remembered the message on my phone.
My arms stayed at my sides.
Ashley noticed.
She slowly stepped back.
Her face changed.
“What's wrong?”
I looked at Susan.
“Where's Daniel?”
Ashley glanced toward a table.
Her fiancé was sitting with his parents.
Daniel stood immediately and walked toward us.
He was twenty-five, polite, ambitious, and until that night I had liked him.
Now I wasn't sure what I knew.
“Mr. Bennett,” he said carefully.
“Mark is fine.”
He nodded.
I looked at Ashley.
“We need to talk privately.”
Her eyes widened.
“Can it wait?”
“No.”
Susan touched my arm.
“Mark, she's had a terrible night.”
“So have I.”
Something in my voice made Susan pull her hand away.
Ashley swallowed.
“Okay.”
The four of us went into a small private dining room beside the main hall.
Daniel followed.
I didn't ask him to leave.
I wanted to see his face too.
I closed the door.
Then I pulled out my phone.
“I received a message before I left the house.”
Ashley went pale before I even showed it to her.
That told me everything.
Susan looked between us.
“What message?”
I turned the phone around.
She read Kevin's words.
Her lips parted.
Daniel looked down.
And that told me something else.
“You knew,” I said.
Daniel looked up quickly.
“Mr. Bennett—”
“You knew.”
Ashley moved between us.
“Dad, let me explain.”
“Where did you get twenty-five thousand dollars?”
Nobody answered.
I repeated the question.
Slower.
“Where did you get the money?”
Ashley started crying again.
But this time the tears didn't move me.
Not because I didn't love her.
Because I knew my daughter.
When she was six, she cried before admitting she'd broken a neighbor's window.
When she was fourteen, she cried after sneaking out to a concert.
When she was nineteen, she cried when she scratched the side of my truck and tried to blame a shopping cart.
Ashley cried when she was afraid.
Right then, she looked terrified.
Susan suddenly whispered, “The wedding account.”
I turned toward her.
“What?”
Susan looked at Ashley.
“No.”
Ashley covered her face.
My stomach tightened.
Six months earlier, Susan and I had opened a separate account to help with the wedding.
Forty thousand dollars.
It wasn't everything we had saved.
But it wasn't nothing.
I had spent years working overtime, skipping vacations, driving the same truck for eleven years because I wanted Ashley to begin married life without debt.
I looked at Susan.
“How much is left?”
She shook her head.
“I haven't checked in weeks.”
“I have.”
Every head turned toward Daniel.
Ashley spun around.
“Daniel.”
He looked sick.
“I checked yesterday.”
I stepped toward him.
“How much?”
“About nine thousand.”
I stared at him.
“We put forty thousand dollars into that account.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
“Where is the rest?”
Ashley grabbed my arm.
“Dad, please.”
I pulled away.
“Do not call me that right now.”
She froze.
The words hurt me the second they left my mouth.
But I couldn't take them back.
Maybe I didn't want to.
Susan started crying.
“Mark.”
I kept my eyes on Ashley.
“You wanted your real father tonight. Fine. Now tell me why thirty-one thousand dollars is missing from an account your stepfather funded.”
Ashley looked like I had slapped her.
“That isn't fair.”
I laughed once.
It sounded bitter even to me.
“Fair?”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Some of the money went to wedding expenses.”
“How much?”
“Six thousand, maybe seven.”
“So where did the rest go?”
Silence.
I looked from Ashley to Daniel.
Then back again.
And suddenly something else occurred to me.
“Why would Kevin demand money to attend his own daughter's engagement party?”
Ashley shook her head.
“He didn't demand it.”
“Then why did you offer?”
Her chin trembled.
“Because he wouldn't come otherwise.”
That answer was so pathetic I almost wished she had lied.
Susan whispered, “Oh, Ashley.”
Ashley turned on her mother.
“Don't.”
“You paid a man who abandoned you to pretend he cared?”
“I wanted one night!”
Her voice exploded through the room.
“One night where I could have both parents there!”
I stared at her.
“Both?”
She realized what she'd said.
But too late.
I nodded slowly.
“So I wasn't a parent.”
“That's not what I meant.”
“It is exactly what you meant.”
“Dad—”
“Mark,” I corrected.
Her face crumpled.
Susan walked toward me.
“Please. She's confused.”
“No. She's twenty-three.”
I pointed at the phone.
“She contacted a man who walked out on her, offered him enough money to buy a car, and told the man who stayed home because she didn't want him there.”
Ashley looked at the floor.
I continued.
“And that still doesn't explain all the missing money.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
I saw it.
A tiny movement.
But unmistakable.
I faced him.
“What aren't you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Don't lie in front of me.”
Ashley suddenly said, “It wasn't all for Kevin.”
Susan went still.
I waited.
Ashley wiped her cheeks.
“I gave him ten thousand up front.”
I looked at the message.
“He said twenty-five.”
“I promised twenty-five. Ten before. Fifteen after.”
“Then where is the rest?”
Her eyes moved toward Daniel.
Daniel's jaw tightened.
And everything inside me dropped.
“What did you do?”
Daniel stared at the carpet.
“Ashley.”
He didn't look up.
She whispered, “Daniel lost his job.”
I frowned.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Susan gasped.
“What?”
Daniel finally looked at us.
“My company downsized.”
I remembered seeing him at my house every weekday.
Always in a button-down shirt.
Always saying he had meetings.
Always leaving with a laptop bag.
“You've been pretending to go to work?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I've been interviewing.”
“For three months?”
Ashley jumped in.
“He's been trying.”
I ignored her.
“Where did the money go?”
Daniel took a breath.
“Rent. Credit cards. Car payments.”
“You used her wedding fund to support yourself?”
“I was going to pay it back.”
“With what?”
His face hardened slightly.
“I said I was looking for work.”
I laughed.
This time there was no humor in it.
“So you two burned through money Susan and I spent years saving, then offered another twenty-five thousand to Kevin?”
Ashley shook her head.
“We weren't going to use all your money for Kevin.”
“Whose money were you going to use?”
She didn't answer.
I already knew.
Mine.
Somehow.
I walked to the door.
Susan called my name.
I turned around.
“One question.”
Ashley looked at me.
“Did you invite me tonight before Kevin came back into your life?”
She blinked.
“What?”
“The original guest list. Was I supposed to stand beside you as your father?”
“Yes.”
“And when Kevin agreed to come, you removed me.”
Her mouth opened.
No words came.
I nodded.
“That's all I needed.”
I walked out.
Ashley ran after me.
“Dad!”
The remaining guests turned.
I kept walking.
She caught me near the entrance.
“Please don't leave.”
I turned.
“Three days ago, that's exactly what you asked me to do.”
She flinched.
“I made a mistake.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You made a choice.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I was desperate.”
“For him.”
She shook her head violently.
“For answers.”
That stopped me.
I stared at her.
“What answers?”
She glanced around the restaurant.
Then she whispered something that changed the entire night.
“Kevin told me Mom lied about why he left.”
Behind Ashley, I saw Susan standing in the hallway.
Her face lost all color.
I looked at my wife.
“Susan?”
She didn't move.
Ashley turned.
“You should tell him.”
Susan's lips trembled.
“Ashley, not here.”
“You've had twenty years.”
“What is she talking about?” I asked.
Susan closed her eyes.
Ashley looked at me.
“Kevin says Mom didn't just let him leave.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“He says she paid him to disappear.”
