Chapter 5
I ended the call without saying goodbye.
Susan knew immediately.
“What did he say?”
I looked at her.
“Your mother's inheritance.”
Her face changed.
Ashley slowly stood.
“What inheritance?”
Susan said nothing.
Ashley stared at her.
“Mom.”
I repeated Kevin's exact words.
“Ask your wife what happened to the inheritance her mother left Ashley.”
Susan sat down.
Not dramatically.
Almost as if her legs simply stopped working.
I had known Susan's mother, Carol, for eight years before she died.
She adored Ashley.
Carol wasn't wealthy.
At least I hadn't thought she was.
She owned a small house.
Worked thirty years as a school secretary.
When she died, Susan told me the estate barely covered medical bills and the remaining mortgage.
I believed her.
I had no reason not to.
Until now.
Ashley walked toward her mother.
“Grandma left me money?”
Susan stared at the floor.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Ashley—”
“How much?”
Susan's voice broke.
“Eighty thousand.”
I actually laughed.
It was the kind of laugh that comes out when reality becomes too absurd to process.
“Eighty.”
Susan nodded.
I sat across from her.
“You told me Carol had nothing left.”
“She didn't leave it to me.”
“No.”
I pointed toward Ashley.
“She left it to her granddaughter.”
Ashley was crying silently now.
“What happened to it?”
Susan's eyes closed.
“I used some of it.”
“How much is some?”
“Fifty thousand.”
The amount matched Kevin's claim.
Ashley backed away.
“You gave Grandma's money to Kevin?”
“To protect you.”
“Stop saying that!”
Ashley screamed so loudly I flinched.
“For twenty years, every lie you tell is apparently to protect me!”
Susan stood.
“I was terrified!”
“Of him?”
“Yes!”
“You had custody!”
“He had photographs.”
My anger paused.
“What photographs?”
Susan wiped her face.
“Of me.”
Ashley looked confused.
“What kind?”
Susan couldn't answer.
I understood before Ashley did.
“Susan.”
“They weren't…” She swallowed. “They weren't explicit. Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“He had pictures of me at parties. Drinking. One where I was holding something.”
“What?”
“Cocaine.”
Ashley stared.
I stared too.
Susan rushed to explain.
“I didn't use it.”
“Then why were you holding it?”
“Someone handed it to me. It was a stupid picture. I was twenty.”
“And Kevin threatened to use it?”
“He said he'd tell the court I was an addict. He said he'd send the pictures to your company. To our neighbors. To Ashley's school.”
I shook my head.
“We could have gone to the police.”
“I know.”
“You could have told me.”
“I know.”
“You stole fifty thousand dollars from your daughter.”
“I borrowed it.”
Ashley laughed bitterly.
“Did you pay it back?”
Susan looked at me.
That was when I knew.
She had.
With our money.
“What did you do?”
Susan sat again.
“Over the years, I replaced it.”
I stared at her.
“How?”
“Household accounts.”
My heart started pounding.
“What household accounts?”
“Small amounts.”
“How small?”
“A few hundred here. A thousand there.”
I thought about twenty years of budgets.
Unexpected credit card balances.
Vacations we postponed.
Months when Susan said utilities were unusually high.
Cash withdrawals for school expenses.
Medical bills I never saw.
I stood.
“You've been taking money from our marriage for twenty years to cover money you stole from Ashley?”
“I was putting it back.”
“With money I earned.”
“With money we earned.”
“Don't do that.”
My voice went dangerously quiet.
“Do not turn this into a technicality.”
Susan started crying again.
Ashley walked away.
She stopped near the fireplace.
“Is the money there now?”
Susan nodded.
“All eighty thousand.”
I looked at her.
“Where?”
“In a trust account.”
“Does Ashley control it?”
“She does now.”
Ashley spun around.
“I have never heard of a trust account.”
“I was going to tell you when you turned twenty-five.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted you to be mature enough.”
Ashley looked at her mother as if the answer disgusted her.
“You stole from me and then decided I wasn't mature enough to know I had money?”
Susan's face crumpled.
“I made mistakes.”
“No.”
Ashley pointed at her.
“You made decisions.”
The words were mine from earlier.
Hearing them from Ashley hurt.
But they were true.
My phone buzzed.
Another message from Kevin.
A photo.
It showed a bank transfer receipt from more than twenty years earlier.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Sender: Susan Bennett.
Recipient: Kevin Marshall.
The date was six months after our wedding.
I showed Susan.
“Where did this come from?”
She looked away.
“Carol's account.”
I wanted to shout.
Instead, I became calm.
That scared Susan more.
“I need your phone.”
“Mark.”
“Your phone.”
She handed it over.
I didn't know what I expected to find.
Kevin's messages?
Secret accounts?
Another family?
At that point, almost anything seemed possible.
I opened her banking app.
She tried to stop me.
“Mark, don't.”
I looked at her.
“You have exactly one chance to tell me why.”
She pulled her hand away.
I checked our shared account.
Then savings.
Then I noticed another account connected to the app.
I had never seen it.
I opened it.
Balance: $146,820.
I stared.
“What is this?”
Susan started sobbing.
Ashley came closer.
I turned the screen.
She covered her mouth.
I looked at Susan.
“Where did one hundred forty-six thousand dollars come from?”
“It isn't ours.”
“Whose?”
“Carol's estate.”
“You said Ashley received eighty.”
“She did.”
“So what is this?”
Susan shook her head.
“I can't.”
I stood.
“You can't?”
“Mark, please.”
“No.”
I put her phone down.
“You have hidden more money from me than I've managed to save in some entire decades of our marriage, and you're telling me you can't explain it?”
Ashley whispered, “Mom, whose money is it?”
Susan looked at her.
“Your brother's.”
The room went dead.
Ashley stared.
“My what?”
I felt as if someone had punched me.
Susan's lips trembled.
“Your brother.”
Ashley took one step backward.
“I don't have a brother.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Susan.
“We have one child.”
She turned toward me.
“I had a son.”
My hands went cold.
“When?”
“Before Ashley.”
I couldn't speak.
Neither could Ashley.
Susan sat with both hands covering her face.
“I was seventeen.”
Ashley whispered, “You had a baby?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“My parents sent me away for the last months of the pregnancy.”
“Where?”
“To my aunt in Ohio.”
“And the baby?”
“Adoption.”
Ashley stared.
Susan continued.
“Closed adoption. I wasn't supposed to contact him.”
I found my voice.
“What does this have to do with Carol's money?”
“Mom never forgave herself.”
“For what?”
“For forcing me to give him up.”
Susan looked at the account on her phone.
“She left money in case I ever found him.”
“How much?”
“One hundred thousand originally.”
“And now it's almost one-fifty.”
“Investments.”
I sat down.
For twenty-one years, my wife had never once mentioned giving birth to another child.
I thought I knew every scar on her body.
Every fear.
Every regret.
I knew nothing.
Ashley sank onto the couch.
“What's his name?”
“I named him Jacob.”
“Last name?”
“I don't know what his adoptive parents changed it to.”
“Have you looked for him?”
Susan nodded.
“For years.”
My stomach tightened.
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
Of course.
Ashley laughed through tears.
“Does anyone in this family tell the truth?”
No one answered.
Then there was a knock at the door.
Three slow knocks.
We all froze.
It was nearly midnight.
I stood.
Susan whispered, “Don't.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
I walked toward the door.
Looked through the peephole.
A man stood outside.
Early forties.
Dark hair.
He looked vaguely familiar.
Not because I knew him.
Because his eyes looked like Susan's.
I opened the door halfway.
“Can I help you?”
The man looked past me.
“Is Susan Bennett here?”
Behind me, Susan made a sound.
Almost a gasp.
The man's eyes moved toward her.
She stood.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Jacob?”
Ashley turned white.
The man nodded.
“That's what you named me.”
Susan started crying.
He didn't step inside.
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then at Ashley.
Then at me.
“I didn't come for a reunion.”
Susan wiped her face.
“How did you find me?”
“Kevin Marshall.”
My spine stiffened.
Jacob reached into his coat.
He pulled out an envelope.
“He contacted me six weeks ago.”
Ashley whispered, “Why?”
Jacob looked at her.
“Because he wanted me to help him destroy this family.”
Susan shook her head.
“Why would he contact you?”
“He knew who I was.”
“How?”
Jacob's eyes hardened.
“Because Kevin isn't just Ashley's father.”
May you like
Silence.
“He's mine too.”
