Chapter 13
Amanda’s offer made Lily cry.
She heard Rachel discussing it with Dad.
“Mom wants me?”
“Yes,” Dad said carefully.
“Then why is everyone mad?”
Dad sat beside her.
“Wanting you isn’t the problem.”
“What is?”
“She wants me to stop protecting you in exchange for money.”
Lily looked confused.
“Like buying me?”
Dad’s face tightened.
“I wouldn’t say it that way.”
“I would.”
We all turned.
Robert stood in the doorway.
He had come to visit.
His face was red.
Ellen touched his arm.
“Robert.”
“No.”
He looked at Lily.
Then immediately softened.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
Lily stared at the floor.
Robert knelt.
“Your grandfather is angry at grown-ups. Never you.”
“Mom asked you for money too.”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
“No.”
He took her hand.
“Because she knew we would pay anything if we thought it helped you.”
Lily thought about that.
“So loving me made you easy to trick?”
Robert’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
That answer stayed with all of us.
Love could make people brave.
It could also make them vulnerable.
The custody case moved faster after Amanda’s offer.
Her lawyer tried to withdraw it from the record.
Rachel had already documented everything.
The judge ordered that Lily remain with Dad while the criminal cases continued.
Amanda appealed.
She lost.
Then she tried a new strategy.
She claimed Dad’s adoption of Lily was invalid.
That terrified Lily.
“What happens if she’s right?”
Dad told her the adoption had been reviewed by two attorneys and approved by a judge.
Still, Rachel checked every page.
Ryan had died.
Amanda had consented.
Required notices had been properly handled.
The adoption was valid.
Amanda’s challenge failed.
But something came from it.
During review, Rachel found a document signed by Amanda four years earlier.
It stated under oath that Ryan’s parents were deceased.
Robert and Ellen were very much alive.
The court had never required their consent because Ryan was dead and Amanda retained parental rights, but the false statement mattered.
It showed another lie.
More importantly, it explained why nobody had contacted the Carters during the adoption.
Dad looked devastated.
“I would have invited them.”
Ellen believed him.
“We know.”
“I would never have taken Lily from you.”
Robert nodded.
“We know that now.”
Those words mattered to Dad.
The prosecutor investigating Ryan’s death contacted Robert and Ellen.
They had always believed Ryan drove drunk.
They had blamed him.
Robert said the worst part was realizing he spent four years angry at his dead son.
“What if he was trying to stop her?”
Nobody had an answer.
Forensic experts reconstructed the crash.
The driver’s seat had been positioned much closer to the steering wheel than someone Ryan’s height would normally use.
Amanda was shorter.
Ryan had a deep injury on his right knee consistent with striking the center console.
Amanda had an injury on her left knee.
The original police report had noted these details.
Nobody connected them.
Nicole’s statement finally gave those facts meaning.
Then investigators found another witness.
A paramedic.
He remembered Amanda behaving strangely.
“She kept saying he was driving before anyone asked,” he told police.
Still, prosecutors were cautious.
They needed proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nicole had admitted helping move Ryan.
That made her credibility vulnerable.
Amanda’s attorney called her a liar seeking attention.
Then Priya found the ten-thousand-dollar payment.
It came from the first insurance disbursement after Ryan’s death.
Amanda withdrew the money in cash.
Nicole deposited almost exactly ten thousand dollars three days later.
The pieces started fitting.
One evening, Dad sat alone on the back porch.
I joined him.
“You’re doing the face.”
He looked at me.
“What face?”
“The thinking face.”
He smiled slightly.
“Caught me.”
“Are you thinking about Ryan?”
“Yes.”
I sat beside him.
“Do you think Amanda killed him?”
Dad took a long time to answer.
“I think the police should decide what evidence proves.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He laughed softly.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make me answer the real question.”
I waited.
Dad stared into the yard.
“I think she may have caused the crash.”
“On purpose?”
“I don’t know.”
“Would that make Lily sad?”
“Yes.”
“Should we tell her?”
“Not until professionals think she’s ready.”
I kicked my feet against the chair.
“Adults hide a lot.”
Dad looked at me.
“Sometimes we do.”
“That’s how Amanda got away with stuff.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“So how do I know when hiding is good?”
Dad sighed.
“That’s a hard question.”
I waited.
“Secrets that protect someone from consequences are dangerous.”
“What about surprises?”
“Those end.”
I thought about the camera.
“What about safety plans?”
“They should involve safe adults.”
“What about things kids aren’t ready to hear?”
Dad looked toward the house where Lily was laughing with Ellen.
“You tell them enough truth that they don’t have to invent something worse.”
I liked that answer.
The next day, someone spray-painted LIAR across our garage.
Security cameras captured a person in a hood.
Officer Collins reviewed the footage.
Dad assumed it was one of Amanda’s online supporters.
Then the person turned toward the camera for half a second.
Rachel recognized her.
Monica.
Amanda’s sister.
Dad looked stunned.
Monica had apologized publicly.
She had helped police.
She had seemed terrified of Amanda.
Officer Collins called her.
No answer.
Police went to her apartment.
Empty.
On the kitchen table they found a note.
It said:
I’M SORRY. SHE KNOWS WHAT I DID.
Underneath those words was an address.
A storage facility.
And a unit number.
The same storage facility Amanda had visited before her arrest.
Police obtained a warrant.
Inside the unit they found suitcases, cash, forged documents, and dozens of folders.
One folder had my name.
One had Lily’s.
One had Daniel’s.
One had Nicole’s.
May you like
And one had a name nobody expected.
MONICA.
