Chapter 2
Ray laughed.
It was the kind of laugh people make when they are scared but want everyone else to believe they are still in control.
“You’re calling the police over a twenty-year-old Honda?”
Mom didn’t answer him.
She handed me the envelope.
My name was written across the front in Dad’s handwriting.
Marcus.
Nothing else.
I stared at it.
I had seen Dad’s handwriting on birthday cards, grocery lists, and little notes he used to leave on my bedroom door.
But I had never seen this envelope.
“Where did you get this?”
Mom looked at Ray.
“Daniel gave it to me two weeks before he died. He told me not to open it unless there was ever a dispute over the car.”
Ray’s face changed.
“What dispute?”
Mom’s eyes stayed on him.
“One exactly like this.”
Chloe lowered the keys.
For the first time since I had walked through the door, she looked nervous.
I opened the envelope.
Inside were several folded documents and a short handwritten letter.
My hands shook as I unfolded it.
Marcus,
If you’re reading this, someone probably forgot that the Honda belongs to you.
I almost smiled.
That sounded exactly like Dad.
He always tried to make serious moments easier.
I kept reading.
The title was transferred into your name before my final surgery. Your mother has the paperwork. The car is not part of my estate and cannot legally be given away by anyone else.
There is something else.
Check beneath the spare tire in the trunk.
I looked up.
“What’s beneath the spare tire?”
Mom shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Ray moved toward me.
“Give me that.”
Mom stepped between us.
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Sarah, this is ridiculous.”
“What’s ridiculous,” she said quietly, “is you signing paperwork for property you didn’t own.”
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“You transferred Marcus’s vehicle to Chloe.”
“I’m his parent.”
“You’re his stepfather.”
Ray flinched.
Mom almost never said it like that.
Not because she didn’t respect his role in the family.
Because she had always tried to make him feel included.
But suddenly every word mattered.
Ray pointed at me.
“He’s twenty years old. He doesn’t even live here most of the year.”
“That doesn’t make his property yours.”
Chloe stepped forward.
“Okay, can everyone stop acting like Dad robbed a bank?”
My head snapped toward her.
“He gave you something that belonged to me.”
“I didn’t know!”
“You were holding the keys in my face ten minutes ago telling me to get over it.”
“I thought Dad owned it!”
“And when I told you it was mine?”
She had no answer.
Mom held out her hand.
“Keys.”
Chloe looked at Ray.
He said nothing.
“Chloe,” Mom repeated. “Give me the keys.”
Her face twisted.
“You’re taking his side?”
Mom stared at her.
“This isn’t about sides.”
“It always is with him!”
I blinked.
“What?”
Chloe suddenly looked like she wanted to take the words back.
But anger had already taken over.
“You heard me.”
Ray stepped beside her.
“Enough.”
“No,” Mom said. “Apparently not enough. What does she mean, it’s always about Marcus?”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“He gets everything because his dad died.”
The room went silent.
It felt like someone had punched me.
Chloe’s eyes widened slightly, but she kept going.
“He gets sympathy. He gets special treatment. He gets a car sitting in the driveway while I have to borrow yours.”
I could barely breathe.
“You think I wanted my father to die so I could get a Honda?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You basically did.”
Ray turned to Chloe.
“Go upstairs.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“I’m tired of pretending!”
Mom stared at Ray.
And something passed between them.
Something I didn’t understand.
Mom noticed it too.
“What have you been telling her?”
Ray’s eyes hardened.
“Don’t start.”
“What have you been telling Chloe about Marcus?”
“Nothing.”
Chloe looked at him.
That was all Mom needed.
“Ray.”
He shook his head.
“This family has spent years revolving around Daniel’s memory.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“He was my father.”
“And he was my wife’s husband,” Ray snapped. “Do you have any idea what it’s like living in a house where a dead man gets more respect than you?”
Mom went pale.
“Don’t.”
“I’ve spent eight years competing with a ghost.”
“Nobody asked you to compete with him.”
“His pictures are everywhere.”
“There are three pictures.”
“His tools are still in the garage.”
“Because Marcus uses them.”
“His car sits outside like some monument.”
“It belongs to Marcus!”
Ray’s voice rose.
“And every time I look at it, I’m reminded that no matter what I do, I’m the replacement.”
That was when I understood.
This had never been about Chloe needing transportation.
It had never been about a car sitting unused.
Ray wanted Dad’s Honda gone.
Chloe was simply convenient.
Mom seemed to realize the same thing.
“You didn’t give that car to Chloe because she needed one.”
Ray said nothing.
“You wanted Daniel’s car out of this house.”
“Sarah—”
“You wanted to erase him.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“You didn’t need to.”
A knock came at the front door.
Three sharp knocks.
Everyone froze.
Mom walked over and opened it.
Officer Bennett stood on the porch.
He had been one of Dad’s childhood friends.
He had attended the funeral.
He had brought casseroles when Dad was sick and checked on me more than once after I went to college.
He looked from Mom to me to Ray.
“I understand there’s a problem with Daniel’s Honda.”
Ray scoffed.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Officer Bennett stepped inside.
“Marcus, do you have the title?”
Mom handed him the documents from the envelope.
He read them carefully.
Then he looked at me.
“The car is legally yours.”
I nodded.
“Where is it now?”
I looked at Chloe.
She swallowed.
“Outside my boyfriend’s apartment.”
Officer Bennett took out a notebook.
“What’s the address?”
Ray stepped forward.
“This doesn’t need to become a police matter.”
“It became a police matter when someone submitted a transfer without the owner’s authorization.”
“I signed as his guardian.”
Officer Bennett looked at me.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
Then he looked back at Ray.
“So you’re not his guardian.”
Ray’s face reddened.
“It was a misunderstanding.”
“Maybe.”
Officer Bennett glanced at the paperwork.
“But according to this, someone also signed Marcus’s name.”
My stomach dropped.
I grabbed the document.
At the bottom was a signature.
Marcus Hale.
It looked almost like mine.
Almost.
I stared at Ray.
“You forged my signature?”
He said nothing.
Mom whispered, “Ray.”
Chloe backed away.
“Dad?”
“I handled the paperwork through a friend at the dealership.”
Officer Bennett’s expression became much more serious.
“Who?”
Ray shook his head.
“I’m not discussing that.”
“You probably should.”
Mom sank into a kitchen chair.
She looked stunned.
I thought that was the worst part.
Then I remembered Dad’s letter.
Check beneath the spare tire.
I looked at Officer Bennett.
“We need to get the car.”
Twenty minutes later, we were driving toward Chloe’s boyfriend’s apartment.
Mom drove.
Officer Bennett followed in his patrol car.
Ray stayed behind after refusing to come.
Chloe sat in the back seat.
Nobody spoke.
When we reached the apartment complex, I saw the Honda parked beneath a tree.
For a second, everything else disappeared.
Dad’s faded blue Honda.
The dent in the passenger door from the time he backed into our mailbox.
The old college sticker he had never removed.
The tiny scratch I caused when I learned to drive.
I walked toward it like I was seeing an old friend.
Then I noticed something.
The trunk wasn’t completely closed.
“Chloe.”
She looked up.
“Did you leave the trunk open?”
“No.”
I lifted it.
The carpet had been pulled loose.
The spare tire compartment was exposed.
And whatever Dad had hidden there was gone.
I turned around.
Chloe had gone white.
“I didn’t do that.”
Officer Bennett stepped closer.
“Who else had access to the car?”
She hesitated.
“My dad.”
My heart started pounding.
Mom stared at her.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What was he doing here?”
Chloe’s voice became small.
“He said he needed to check something in the trunk.”
Officer Bennett looked at me.
Ray had known.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
Dad had hidden something in that car.
And before giving it away, Ray had taken it.
I pulled out my phone.
There was one new message.
From Ray.
May you like
You want your precious car back? Fine.
But what I found inside belongs to me now.
