Chapter 5
Thomas told Kevin to lock the doors.
I told Kevin not to.
We said it at the same time.
Thomas looked at me.
“Maya.”
“I’m talking to him.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“There is no reason to believe he is safe.”
“There is no reason to believe anyone in this room is safe.”
That stopped him.
Rebecca stood behind Emma.
For once, she wasn’t arguing.
She looked terrified.
Kevin held the tablet toward us.
The camera showed a man standing beneath the parking lot light.
Gray hair.
Dark jacket.
Hands in his pockets.
He looked thinner than I expected.
Older too.
But there was something familiar about his face.
My face.
The same narrow nose.
The same deep line between the eyebrows.
I hated noticing it.
Emma whispered, “He looks like you.”
Rebecca said, “Don’t.”
But she was right.
Thomas stared at the screen.
His expression was impossible to read.
Twenty-two years of anger in one face.
Daniel looked toward the camera.
Then lifted one hand.
He knew we were watching.
I stood.
“I’m going out there.”
Thomas blocked the door.
“No.”
“Move.”
“Maya.”
“Move.”
He didn’t.
I looked directly at him.
“If you try to control me the way you controlled my mother, I will walk out of your life before I’ve even entered it.”
His face changed.
Then he stepped aside.
Rebecca grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
I looked down at her hand.
She released me immediately.
“Don’t go alone.”
I almost laughed.
“Are you volunteering?”
“Yes.”
Thomas said, “So am I.”
Emma stood.
“Me too.”
Rebecca snapped, “Absolutely not.”
Emma stared at her.
“You lied to me for sixteen years. You don’t get to start being honest by sending me away.”
Rebecca looked wounded.
But she didn’t argue.
Kevin called security anyway.
Two guards followed us through the kitchen.
The cooks stared.
No one knew what was happening.
I pushed open the back door.
Cold Boston air hit my face.
Daniel stood twenty feet away.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
He looked at me.
Only me.
His eyes filled with tears.
“You have Sarah’s eyes.”
I felt anger immediately.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“You don’t get to use her name like that.”
He nodded once.
“That’s fair.”
Thomas came through the door.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Tom.”
“Daniel.”
Rebecca followed.
Daniel looked at her.
“Rebecca.”
She crossed her arms.
“You’ve aged badly.”
He smiled.
“You’re still mean.”
“That was almost funny.”
Emma appeared behind her.
Daniel stared.
“Your daughter?”
Rebecca stepped in front of Emma.
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded.
“Looks like Mark.”
Rebecca’s body stiffened.
“Where is he?”
Daniel glanced toward the far end of the lot.
“Not here.”
“You were supposed to meet him.”
“I was.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Because Mark contacted me six months ago.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“For what?”
“To buy something.”
“What?”
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
Security immediately moved.
“Easy.”
He pulled out a flash drive.
“This.”
Rebecca stared at it.
“What’s on it?”
“Records.”
Thomas’s eyes narrowed.
“The old financial records?”
“Some.”
“Why would Mark want them?”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“You really don’t know.”
Thomas’s patience snapped.
“Know what?”
Daniel looked at Rebecca.
“Your husband has spent twenty years cleaning up something he helped start.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel held up the drive.
“Barton Financial didn’t discover the missing money.”
Thomas stared at him.
“What?”
“They created the report.”
“We know that.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“They created the transactions.”
Nobody spoke.
Thomas looked like someone had hit him.
Daniel continued.
“I was being used.”
Rebecca whispered, “By who?”
“Someone inside Collins Hospitality.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“Name them.”
“I couldn’t prove it then.”
“Can you now?”
“Maybe.”
Thomas stared at the drive.
Daniel closed his fist around it.
“Not for free.”
I actually laughed.
Everyone turned toward me.
“You came here after twenty years, told me you watched me grow up from a distance, and now you’re negotiating?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“I need protection.”
“From who?”
“Mark.”
Rebecca said, “Mark is not dangerous.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You have no idea who you married.”
Her face tightened.
“Then tell me.”
“He helped build the case against me.”
“He worked in restructuring.”
“So you keep saying.”
Daniel looked at Thomas.
“Remember Alan Price?”
Thomas’s face changed.
“Of course.”
“Your chief financial officer.”
“Yes.”
“He was stealing from you.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Alan was with me for thirty years.”
“He was stealing from you for eight.”
“Impossible.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“That’s what Sarah said about you when I told her you’d never forgive us.”
Thomas flinched.
Daniel continued.
“Alan was moving money through vendor accounts. I found irregularities. I asked Mark for help because Barton was already consulting for the company.”
Rebecca whispered, “You knew Mark before I met him?”
“Yes.”
She stepped backward.
Daniel nodded.
“Mark told me he would investigate.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“And instead?”
“Two weeks later, I became the suspect.”
Rebecca stared at the ground.
“No.”
“Mark knew you were Thomas’s daughter.”
“No.”
“He asked me about you.”
Rebecca looked up.
“When?”
“Before your first date.”
That broke something in her expression.
Emma grabbed her mother’s hand.
Rebecca didn’t pull away.
Thomas said, “Why would Mark marry Rebecca?”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“Because Alan needed someone close to the family.”
Rebecca whispered, “Stop.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You think it was chance that a Barton consultant met Thomas Collins’s daughter three months after the audit?”
“Stop.”
“You think it was chance he encouraged you to cut off your father?”
“Stop!”
Emma jumped.
Rebecca was crying now.
Actually crying.
I had seen her angry.
Cruel.
Defensive.
But not broken.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
She wiped her face.
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right.”
Thomas stepped toward Daniel.
“Where is Alan Price?”
Daniel stared at him.
“You don’t know?”
“He died fifteen years ago.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s what you were told.”
The parking lot went silent.
Thomas stared at him.
“What?”
“I saw him eight years ago.”
“Where?”
“Connecticut.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He was using the name Andrew Pierce.”
Thomas looked like the world was shifting under him.
Rebecca whispered, “Mark attended Alan’s funeral.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I bet he did.”
My head hurt.
Too many secrets.
Too many men lying.
I looked at Daniel.
“Why did you leave my mother?”
His face fell.
Thomas looked at me.
“Maya—”
“No.”
I kept my eyes on Daniel.
“I don’t care about Alan. I don’t care about Barton. I don’t care about missing money until you answer me.”
Daniel nodded.
“You deserve that.”
“Then answer.”
He looked down.
“I was scared.”
“That’s not enough.”
“No.”
He took a breath.
“When Sarah had you, we were happy for a while.”
I didn’t want to hear tenderness in his voice.
It made everything worse.
“We lived in Manchester. I worked construction under another name. Sarah stayed home with you.”
I remembered none of it.
“I kept thinking Thomas would find me.”
Thomas said quietly, “I was searching for Sarah.”
Daniel ignored him.
“I became obsessed. Every unfamiliar car looked like an investigator. Every phone call scared me.”
Rebecca looked disgusted.
“So you took it out on Sarah.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
The admission surprised everyone.
“I didn’t hit her.”
Rebecca scoffed.
“As if that makes you a hero.”
“I know it doesn’t.”
He looked at me.
“I controlled things I had no right to control. Money. Phone calls. Where she went.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why?”
“Because I thought if she contacted the Collins family, Thomas would find us.”
“So you punished her for loving her family.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
I wanted him to make excuses.
I wanted him to be easy to hate.
Instead, he kept admitting things.
That somehow felt worse.
“Then one night,” he continued, “Sarah told me she was leaving.”
“With me.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I emptied our account.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“I thought she would come back if she had no money.”
Rebecca muttered, “You bastard.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
My eyes burned.
“She didn’t.”
“No.”
“She called Rebecca.”
“I found out later.”
“And then?”
“I panicked.”
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“Because Mark called me.”
Rebecca looked up.
“What?”
Daniel turned toward her.
“He said Thomas knew everything. He said police were coming. He said if I stayed away from Sarah, he could keep her out of it.”
Thomas stared.
“Keep her out of what?”
“The theft case.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“I believed him.”
“So you abandoned my mother to save yourself.”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
I stepped closer.
“You abandoned me too.”
“Yes.”
He started crying.
I felt nothing.
Or maybe I felt too much.
“I’m sorry, Maya.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t.”
“I know I don’t deserve—”
“Don’t say my name like you know me.”
He stopped.
I pointed at the flash drive.
“Give it to Thomas.”
Daniel hesitated.
“No.”
I laughed.
“Of course.”
“I need leverage.”
“No. You need courage.”
His face tightened.
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand how a father watches his sixteen-year-old daughter struggle from across the city and decides staying hidden is better.”
“I was afraid.”
“My mother was afraid too.”
He looked down.
“She still stayed.”
He had no answer.
Then a car turned sharply into the employee parking lot.
Headlights swept across us.
Rebecca gasped.
A black sedan stopped near the back fence.
The driver’s door opened.
Mark Holloway stepped out.
Emma whispered, “Dad?”
Mark looked at the group.
At Rebecca.
At Thomas.
At me.
Then at Daniel.
His face went blank.
Daniel closed his fist tighter around the flash drive.
Mark smiled.
“This is not how tonight was supposed to go.”
Rebecca stepped toward her husband.
“What did you do?”
May you like
Mark looked at her almost sadly.
“More than you’ll ever forgive.”
