Chapter 5
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The storage unit suddenly felt too small for all of us.
I looked at the letter in Mom’s hands.
“The police about what?”
She read silently.
Then looked at Sarah.
“You knew Thomas was back?”
Sarah shook her head immediately.
“No.”
“Daniel says Thomas contacted him six months before he died.”
Ray stepped closer.
“For money?”
Mom kept reading.
“At first.”
Her voice had gone strangely flat.
“Then he started threatening him.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of threats?”
Mom turned the page.
Dad had written everything down.
Dates.
Phone calls.
Amounts.
Thomas had demanded fifty thousand dollars.
Then seventy-five.
Then more.
He claimed Dad owed him because their father had favored Dad after Thomas went to prison.
Dad refused.
Thomas threatened to expose the affair with Rebecca.
I felt like the floor moved.
“How did he know about Rebecca?”
Mom shook her head.
“He followed Daniel.”
Sarah whispered, “Oh my God.”
Dad’s letter said Thomas had photographs.
Hotel receipts.
Copies of messages.
He had used them to blackmail him.
And Dad paid.
Not because he wanted to protect himself.
According to the letter, he was trying to protect me.
One sentence was underlined.
Camille is thirteen. I will not let Thomas destroy her idea of her family just to punish me.
I swallowed hard.
I didn’t know whether to feel loved or furious.
Probably both.
“What happened after Dad paid him?”
Mom read on.
“Thomas wanted more.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Ray whistled.
“Daniel said no.”
“And then?”
Mom’s fingers trembled.
“Thomas told him he had one week.”
My chest hurt.
“The morning Dad died?”
“That was the deadline.”
Sarah sat on one of the boxes.
“So Daniel was going to the police.”
Mom nodded.
“He had financial records. Recordings. Everything.”
I looked at the filing cabinet.
“Are the recordings here?”
We searched.
Twenty minutes.
Then thirty.
Nothing.
The documents referenced a small digital recorder and a flash drive.
Neither was in the unit.
Ray opened desk drawers.
Sarah searched file boxes.
Mom stood frozen beside the mural.
Then Lily said, “Maybe my mom took it.”
Everyone turned.
She sat on the floor beside her backpack.
“What?”
“My mom had a silver thing.”
I crouched beside her.
“What silver thing?”
She held her fingers apart.
“Like this. Small. She put it in the computer.”
“A flash drive?”
She nodded.
“I think.”
“When?”
“The day we came here.”
My heart accelerated.
“What did she do with it?”
“She cried.”
“Did she take it with her?”
“I don’t know.”
Mom crouched beside us.
“Lily, honey, did your mother tell you anything about what she found?”
Lily thought.
“She said my dad wasn’t bad all the way.”
The sentence broke something in Mom’s face.
“What else?”
“She said somebody lied.”
“Who?”
Lily frowned.
“I don’t remember.”
Sarah asked gently, “Did she say Thomas?”
“No.”
“Ray?”
Ray stiffened.
Lily shook her head.
“Denise?”
Mom flinched.
“No.”
“Camille?”
“No.”
Lily hugged her rabbit.
“She said Uncle Tommy.”
My blood went cold.
Sarah whispered, “Thomas.”
“How would Lily know him?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at her.
“Did you ever meet Uncle Tommy?”
Lily nodded.
Mom grabbed the shelf beside her.
“When?”
“He came to our apartment.”
“How many times?”
“A lot.”
Sarah went pale.
“Rebecca was in contact with him?”
Lily shrugged.
“He yelled.”
“What did he yell about?”
“She told me to go to my room.”
“Did he ever hurt your mom?”
Lily looked down.
That silence was enough.
I felt sick.
Mom’s expression changed from fear to fury.
“Did he hurt her?”
Lily whispered, “He grabbed her.”
I moved closer.
“You don’t have to tell us anything else.”
But she did.
“He wanted something.”
“What?”
“The silver thing.”
Mom stood.
“We need to call the police.”
Ray nodded.
“Now.”
But Sarah was staring into the open filing cabinet.
“Wait.”
She pulled out a photocopy of a business document.
“What is it?”
She handed it to Mom.
Dad’s firm had purchased a small property six months before he died.
The buyer wasn’t Dad personally.
It was an LLC.
Blue Star Holdings.
I recognized the name immediately.
Blue stars.
The mural.
Mom whispered, “I’ve never seen this.”
“What property?”
Sarah pointed to the address.
I knew it too.
Not because I had ever been there.
Because it was the same building where Rebecca had lived.
Her apartment.
“Dad bought Rebecca’s building?”
Ray asked.
Sarah shook her head.
“Not the building. Unit 3B.”
Mom stared at the paper.
“He bought her apartment?”
The affair suddenly seemed even worse.
But then I noticed the date.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at me.
“This was purchased two weeks after the date Dad said he ended things with Rebecca.”
Mom frowned.
“Why buy her an apartment after ending the affair?”
Sarah kept searching.
She found a contract.
Then another.
The unit wasn’t a gift.
It was being used as collateral for something connected to Dad’s company.
And Thomas’s signature was on one page.
I stared at it.
“This wasn’t about Rebecca.”
Ray took the contract.
“No. It was business.”
Mom read faster.
“Thomas had invested through a shell company.”
“He was laundering stolen money?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe.”
The pieces were messy, but one thing was clear.
Dad’s affair had given Thomas leverage.
His business relationship with Dad had given him access.
And sometime before Dad died, those two secrets had collided.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I ignored it.
It rang again.
Same number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man breathed on the other end.
Nobody spoke.
“Who is this?”
The voice was older.
Rough.
“You shouldn’t be in that unit.”
My entire body went cold.
Everyone saw my face change.
I put the call on speaker.
“Who is this?”
The man laughed softly.
“Your father should have taught you not to open doors that were closed for a reason.”
Mom whispered, “Thomas.”
Silence.
Then the man said, “Hello, Denise.”
Mom almost dropped the phone.
“You stay away from my family.”
“Your family?”
His tone sharpened.
“That’s rich.”
Ray stepped closer.
“We’re calling police.”
Thomas laughed again.
“You think I’m scared of police?”
“You should be.”
“No, Ray. You should be.”
Ray froze.
I looked at him.
Thomas continued.
“Ask your husband why he recognizes my name.”
Mom slowly turned toward Ray.
“What?”
Ray looked stunned.
“I don’t know him.”
Thomas said, “Still lying, Ray?”
Mom’s face drained.
“Ray?”
“I swear to you.”
Thomas kept going.
“Ask him where he was on May seventeenth, seven years ago.”
The date hit all of us.
Dad’s death.
Ray went completely still.
Mom whispered, “You told me you never met Daniel.”
“I didn’t.”
Thomas laughed.
“Not true.”
I could hear my own heartbeat.
“What does Ray have to do with my father?”
Thomas’s voice became almost cheerful.
“Oh, Camille.”
I hated the way he said my name.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Your mother didn’t meet Ray two years after Daniel died.”
Mom stared at Ray.
I stared at Mom.
Thomas said, “She met him before.”
My head snapped toward her.
“Mom?”
“No.”
Ray said it too quickly.
“No. That’s a lie.”
Thomas continued.
“They want secrets? Give them the good one, Ray.”
“Shut up.”
Ray’s voice changed.
Not scared anymore.
Angry.
Thomas laughed.
“There he is.”
I looked at my stepfather.
The man who had attended my graduations.
Fixed my car.
Taught me to parallel park.
Sat beside Mom at every holiday.
“Did you know my father?”
Ray looked at me.
His eyes were full of panic.
“Camille, not the way he’s making it sound.”
My stomach turned.
“What way did you know him?”
He didn’t answer.
Thomas did.
“They worked together.”
Mom whispered, “What?”
Ray shook his head.
“It was one project.”
“You told me you’d never met him.”
“I knew of him.”
Thomas made a disgusted sound through the phone.
“You were in his office the week he died.”
Ray shouted toward the phone.
“You’re a liar!”
Lily started crying.
I immediately ended the call.
Silence crashed over us.
Ray looked at Mom.
“Denise, listen to me.”
She backed away.
“You told me you had never met Daniel.”
“I didn’t know him personally.”
“What project?”
Ray ran his hands through his hair.
“I was subcontracting for Bennett Architectural. Years ago.”
“How did I never know this?”
“Because I didn’t think it mattered.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“You married his widow.”
“Camille—”
“And it didn’t seem worth mentioning that you had worked with him?”
“It was one job!”
Mom’s voice became quiet.
“That’s not an answer.”
Ray closed his eyes.
Then he said the sentence that changed the entire direction of the night.
“I saw Daniel the day he died.”
Nobody moved.
Mom whispered, “Where?”
“At his office.”
“Why?”
Ray looked at me.
“Because he asked me to drive something to the police station.”
My mouth went dry.
“What?”
“A package.”
Sarah stood.
“What was in it?”
“I never opened it.”
“Did you deliver it?”
Ray’s silence answered.
Mom’s eyes widened.
“You didn’t.”
He shook his head.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel called me twenty minutes later and told me not to.”
“What happened to the package?”
Ray looked toward the filing cabinet.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
He swallowed.
“In this unit.”
I looked around.
“We’ve searched everything.”
“I didn’t put it in a box.”
He walked toward the back wall.
Toward the mural.
Then he lifted the heavy framed canvas away.
Behind it was a small metal panel.
Ray reached into his pocket and pulled out a screwdriver from his keychain.
Mom stared at him.
“You knew this was here.”
“Yes.”
He removed four screws.
The panel fell forward.
Inside the wall cavity sat a black document case.
Covered in dust.
Untouched for seven years.
Ray pulled it free.
My knees felt weak.
He set it on the desk.
There was a combination lock.
I asked, “Do you know the code?”
He nodded.
“What is it?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“Your birthday.”
