Chapter 6
I could not speak.
My own mother.
Standing in Rachel’s driveway, staring at the man who had betrayed me, I listened to my mother confess that she had helped him hide something from me.
“Why?”
Her breathing trembled through the phone.
“Sarah, please come here.”
“No.”
“This isn’t something I want to explain over the phone.”
“You had six years.”
“It wasn’t six years.”
“When did you transfer the property?”
“Three years ago.”
I looked at Michael.
Our eyes met.
Three years.
Before Lauren.
Before Ethan.
Before the affair, at least according to Michael.
This went deeper than I thought.
“What happened?”
My mother began crying.
“I made a mistake.”
I hated those words now.
Everyone around me made “mistakes” with my life.
“What mistake?”
“After your father died, there were debts.”
“You told me the estate paid them.”
“Most.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father had borrowed privately.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t know at first.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
Rachel came outside.
She stood beside me.
Mom continued.
“The land was the only thing not tied up immediately. Michael said he could help.”
“How?”
“He knew investors.”
Michael looked at the ground.
I wanted to tear every secret out of him.
“He arranged a loan?”
“Yes.”
“Using Dad’s land?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“The loan came due. I couldn’t pay it. Michael said transferring the property into his company would protect it.”
“Protect it from what?”
“Foreclosure.”
I felt sick.
“And you believed him.”
“He was my son-in-law.”
I almost laughed.
So had I.
“What did he tell you afterward?”
“That the company would hold it until the value increased and then he would return my share.”
“Your share?”
“It was still part of your father’s estate.”
“No. It was supposed to be mine.”
Silence.
That silence told me she knew.
“Mom.”
“I was afraid you would be angry.”
“You gave away something Dad left me.”
“I was trying to save it.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Michael said you were under enough stress after Emma’s surgery.”
Emma’s surgery.
My daughter had needed a heart procedure at four.
It had been the worst month of my life.
Apparently while I sat beside her hospital bed, Michael had been arranging control over my father’s land.
I looked at him.
“You used Emma’s surgery to keep me distracted.”
“No.”
My mother heard me.
“Sarah, he helped us.”
“Us?”
“He paid part of Emma’s medical bills.”
“With my inheritance.”
Mom went silent.
That was when I realized she did not know everything.
“He took money from Dad’s account too.”
“What?”
“And borrowed against my house.”
“What are you talking about?”
Michael stepped forward.
“Sarah, stop.”
I held up my hand.
“Don’t come near me.”
Mom demanded, “Michael is there?”
“Yes.”
“Put him on.”
“No.”
“Sarah—”
“No more conversations where people tell each other what I’m allowed to know.”
I ended the call.
Michael looked furious now.
“You’re blowing this up.”
I stared at him.
“It deserves to blow up.”
“If your mother panics and starts calling people—”
“What people?”
He stopped.
There.
Another secret.
“What people?”
“Investors.”
“You said she only dealt with you.”
“She introduced me to someone.”
“Who?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
I waited.
Finally he said, “Your father’s former business partner.”
I knew the name before he said it.
“Victor?”
Michael nodded.
Victor Hale had been at my father’s funeral.
He had hugged me.
He had told me my father had loved me more than anything.
I had not spoken to him in years.
“What does Victor have to do with this?”
“He invested.”
“In your project?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
My breath caught.
“Why?”
“He knew the land.”
“What does that mean?”
“He knew the property would eventually be worth more.”
“For development?”
“Yes.”
I remembered my father talking about Millbrook when I was a teenager.
He said the highway expansion would someday make that land valuable.
At the time, it was just fields and trees.
Now shopping centers were spreading toward it.
“What is it worth?”
Michael looked away.
I knew.
“What is it worth?”
“More than it was.”
“How much?”
He said nothing.
I pulled out my phone and searched.
There were recent listings nearby.
Commercial parcels.
Five acres for $900,000.
Eight acres for $1.6 million.
My father’s property was twelve acres.
My stomach dropped.
“You stole land worth millions.”
“I did not steal it.”
“You hid it.”
“Your mother transferred it legally.”
“To a company you controlled.”
“Yes.”
“Did she understand its value?”
Michael did not answer.
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
I turned toward Ben.
“Can you take Emma to school?”
He nodded.
“I’ll handle it.”
Rachel said, “You’re not going anywhere alone.”
“I’m going to Mom’s.”
“I’m coming.”
Michael stepped forward.
“I should come too.”
“No.”
“We need to straighten this out.”
“I’m done straightening things out with you.”
His face hardened.
Then for the first time, he said something that sounded like a threat.
“You should be careful who you trust right now.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel Reeves is not helping you because he cares.”
“I know.”
“Victor isn’t helping either.”
“He hasn’t contacted me.”
“He will.”
“Why?”
Michael looked at me for a long moment.
“Because if you challenge the land transfer, Victor loses money.”
That made sense.
Too much sense.
“So everyone wants something.”
“Yes.”
“Including you.”
He looked hurt.
I almost admired the nerve.
“Sarah, I wanted to build something big enough that none of us would ever have to worry about money again.”
“You mean you wanted control.”
“No.”
“You controlled what I knew. You controlled my accounts. You controlled my mother. You controlled Lauren. You controlled David.”
“I was keeping things together.”
“You were keeping lies together.”
His face twisted.
For a second, the calm mask disappeared.
“You think I enjoyed this?”
I stared at him.
“I don’t care.”
“I have been holding everyone’s problems for years.”
“Problems you created.”
“Not all of them.”
He looked toward Rachel’s house.
Then back at me.
“There are things about your father you don’t know.”
I went still.
“Don’t.”
“I’m serious.”
“Do not use my dead father to save yourself.”
“I’m not.”
“Then shut up.”
“He wasn’t the man you think he was.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
Ben stepped forward.
Michael touched his cheek.
I expected anger.
Instead he looked sad.
“Ask your mother why your father needed private loans.”
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
“Ask where the money went.”
I hated him for planting doubt.
But doubt took root anyway.
Rachel grabbed my hand.
“Come on.”
We got into her car.
Michael stayed in the driveway.
As we pulled away, he called after me.
“Ask her about Natalie!”
I froze.
Rachel looked at me.
“Who’s Natalie?”
I didn’t know.
At least I thought I didn’t.
Then an old memory surfaced.
A Christmas card.
A woman’s name written on the back of a photograph in my father’s desk.
Natalie and Grace, 2008.
I had assumed they were clients.
Suddenly my hands went cold.
At my mother’s house, she opened the door before we knocked.
Her face was gray.
“You talked to Michael.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Rachel.
“This is family.”
Rachel folded her arms.
“I am family.”
Mom stepped aside.
We entered.
I did not sit.
“Who is Natalie?”
My mother’s face collapsed.
That was the moment I knew Michael had told the truth about at least one thing.
She whispered, “Your father’s daughter.”
I stared at her.
“My what?”
“Half sister.”
The room seemed to tilt again.
“How old is she?”
“Thirty-four.”
I was thirty-eight.
“So Dad had another child?”
Mom began crying.
“Before we married.”
“Why did nobody tell me?”
“Because he lost contact with her mother.”
“For thirty-four years?”
“No.”
I stared.
“When did he find her?”
Mom sat down.
“About eight years before he died.”
The same period when Dad began borrowing money.
My pulse quickened.
“What did he give her?”
Mom covered her face.
“Everything he could.”
I felt my anger shifting.
Not disappearing.
Spreading.
“Did Natalie get money from the estate?”
“No.”
“Did she know about the Millbrook land?”
Mom did not answer.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
My mother looked toward the hallway.
Then whispered, “She called me last week.”
I could hardly breathe.
“Why?”
“She said she is coming back.”
“When?”
Mom’s eyes met mine.
May you like
“Today.”
Before I could respond, the doorbell rang.
