Chapter 6
Rebecca crossed the parking lot before anyone could stop her.
She slapped Mark.
The sound cracked through the cold air.
Emma gasped.
Mark didn’t move.
Rebecca hit him again.
This time he caught her wrist.
“Enough.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
Mark released her.
Rebecca backed away.
Nineteen years of marriage seemed to disappear from her face.
“Did you know Daniel before you met me?”
Mark looked at Daniel.
Then at his wife.
“Yes.”
Emma started crying.
Quietly.
That hurt to watch.
Rebecca stared at Mark.
“Did you marry me because of my father?”
Mark closed his eyes.
“That’s not simple.”
“It is the simplest question I have ever asked you.”
“I knew who you were when we met.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Mark looked at her.
“At first, yes.”
Rebecca’s face collapsed.
Emma whispered, “Dad.”
Mark turned toward his daughter.
“But I loved your mother.”
Rebecca laughed through tears.
“Oh, how generous.”
“I did.”
“You targeted me.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe my father was dead to our daughter.”
Mark’s jaw tightened.
“That was your decision.”
Rebecca looked like she might hit him again.
He continued.
“I told you it was unhealthy.”
“You encouraged me to cut him off.”
“Because Thomas would have seen through me.”
Silence.
Thomas stepped closer.
“So now we stop pretending.”
Mark looked at him.
“I suppose we do.”
“What happened to Alan Price?”
Mark smiled faintly.
“You still go straight to business.”
“What happened to him?”
“Alan died.”
Daniel shouted, “Liar!”
Mark glanced at him.
“You saw someone who looked like him.”
“I spoke to him.”
“You spoke to a sick old man using another name.”
“He knew things only Alan knew.”
Mark shrugged.
“Then maybe Alan lived longer than I thought.”
Rebecca stared.
“How can you say that so casually?”
Mark looked tired.
“Because none of this started with me.”
“But you continued it.”
“Yes.”
Emma backed away from him.
Mark noticed.
“Emma.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“You lied to Mom our entire marriage.”
“I never lied about loving you.”
She stared at him.
“You lied about who you were.”
Mark’s eyes filled with tears.
Emma turned away.
Thomas pointed at the flash drive in Daniel’s hand.
“What is on that?”
Daniel said, “Copies of transaction records. Emails. Audit notes.”
Mark’s expression sharpened.
“Not all of it.”
Daniel smiled.
“Enough.”
“You think so?”
Mark’s gaze moved to me.
That made me uncomfortable.
“What?” I asked.
He studied me.
“You really do look like Sarah.”
Rebecca stepped between us.
“Don’t talk to her.”
Mark looked almost surprised.
“You were throwing food at her an hour ago.”
Rebecca’s face twisted with shame.
“I know.”
It was the first time she admitted it without defending herself.
Mark looked at Thomas.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
Mark laughed.
“No, you don’t.”
Thomas said nothing.
Mark looked around the parking lot.
“Alan discovered years ago that Collins Hospitality had a weakness.”
“What weakness?”
“You.”
Thomas frowned.
“Me?”
“You trusted loyalty more than systems. The people who had been with you from the beginning could approve transfers, override controls, move money, authorize vendors.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“That changed.”
“After the theft.”
“Yes.”
Mark nodded.
“Alan took advantage of it.”
Daniel said, “Finally.”
Mark ignored him.
“He created fake vendor accounts. Small amounts at first. Then larger.”
“How much?”
“Over eight years? Almost six million.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Thomas didn’t react.
But his eyes changed.
“Daniel found it.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at Mark.
“You told Alan.”
“I was twenty-eight years old and drowning in debt.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“There’s the excuse.”
“It isn’t an excuse.”
“Sounds like one.”
Mark looked at him.
“Alan offered me two hundred thousand dollars to redirect the audit.”
Thomas’s voice was quiet.
“You framed Daniel.”
“Yes.”
My stomach turned.
I looked at my father.
For twenty-two years, he had been accused of something he didn’t do.
For one second, sympathy rose in me.
Then I remembered him draining the bank account and leaving us.
Both things could be true.
He could be innocent of theft.
And still guilty of abandoning us.
Life, apparently, enjoyed making monsters complicated.
Thomas looked at Mark.
“Rebecca’s authorization.”
Mark stared at his wife.
“That was me.”
Rebecca’s knees almost buckled.
Emma caught her.
“What?”
Mark continued.
“I had access to specimen signatures and internal authorization forms during the audit.”
“You forged my name.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You let me spend twenty years thinking Sarah chose a criminal over us.”
Mark said nothing.
“You let me hate my sister.”
“I know.”
“You let Dad hate Daniel.”
Daniel muttered, “He already did.”
Thomas ignored him.
Rebecca stepped toward Mark.
“Did Sarah ever know?”
Mark went silent.
That silence terrified me.
“Did my mother know?” I asked.
Mark looked at me.
“Yes.”
Thomas froze.
Rebecca whispered, “How?”
Mark swallowed.
“She contacted me.”
“When?” I asked.
“Fourteen years ago.”
I did the math.
My mother died twelve years ago.
Two years before her death.
“She knew you?”
“She remembered me from Barton.”
“What did she want?”
“She had found Daniel’s old papers.”
Daniel frowned.
“What papers?”
“Copies of vendor records.”
Daniel looked shocked.
“I thought those were gone.”
“Sarah had them.”
My heart raced.
“Where?”
“Apparently Daniel had left a storage box in Manchester. Sarah kept it.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Oh God.”
I looked at Mark.
“She called you.”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell her?”
Mark looked at Rebecca.
“I told her the truth.”
Nobody spoke.
Thomas finally said, “You confessed?”
“Not everything.”
“Of course.”
Mark ignored the comment.
“I told Sarah Daniel had been framed.”
My throat tightened.
“What did she do?”
“She cried.”
I hated him for saying that.
I pictured my mother alone somewhere, learning that the choice that destroyed her family had been built on a lie.
“She asked if Thomas knew.”
“I said no.”
“She asked if Rebecca knew.”
“I said no.”
Rebecca covered her face.
Mark continued.
“She said she wanted to come home.”
Thomas made a broken sound.
I turned toward him.
His eyes were wet.
“My mother wanted to come back?”
Mark nodded.
“She said she was tired of running.”
Thomas looked away.
For the first time that night, he cried openly.
Not quietly.
Not elegantly.
He covered his mouth and turned away from us.
Rebecca stared at him.
Her own anger disappeared.
“Dad.”
He shook his head.
She moved closer.
After a second, she put a hand on his shoulder.
He didn’t push her away.
I watched them and felt grief settle into me.
My mother could have been there.
Between them.
She should have been there.
I looked at Mark.
“What happened?”
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“What happened after she said she wanted to come home?”
Mark’s face became pale.
“She asked for proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That Daniel had been framed.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“Some.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You gave Sarah evidence that could destroy you?”
Mark nodded.
“Why?”
“Because by then Alan was gone. I thought it was over.”
Thomas turned back.
“Gone where?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You attended his funeral.”
“There was a body.”
Daniel said, “Whose?”
Mark shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“This is insane.”
Mark continued.
“Sarah wanted to meet me in Boston.”
My heart stopped.
“When?”
“March 14.”
I knew that date.
I knew it immediately.
My mother died March 15.
I stepped backward.
“No.”
Mark saw my face.
“She died the next day.”
I could barely speak.
“What happened at the meeting?”
Mark looked down.
“We never had it.”
“Why?”
“She called me that morning and canceled.”
“Why?”
“She said someone had been in her apartment.”
I felt cold all over.
Thomas’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“She said the box was gone.”
Daniel swore.
Mark continued.
“She was scared.”
“Who took it?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you tell anyone she contacted you?”
Mark didn’t answer.
Rebecca’s face changed.
“Mark.”
He closed his eyes.
“Alan.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You said you didn’t know where he was.”
“I didn’t. He called me.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That Sarah had the records.”
Thomas moved so fast security stepped in.
He grabbed Mark by the coat.
“You told him?”
Mark didn’t fight back.
“Yes.”
“You told him where my daughter was?”
“I didn’t give him her address.”
“You gave him her name!”
“He already knew her name.”
Thomas shoved him against the car.
“Dad!” Rebecca shouted.
Security pulled Thomas away.
He was breathing hard.
Mark fixed his coat.
“I regret it every day.”
I could barely hear.
“My mother died from an aneurysm.”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying someone killed her?”
“No.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Mark looked at me.
“I’m saying I never believed her death was connected.”
“Until when?”
His eyes moved toward Daniel.
“Until six months ago.”
Daniel frowned.
“What happened six months ago?”
Mark looked at him.
“You contacted me.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“I contacted you because I found Alan.”
“Exactly.”
Mark looked at all of us.
“And three days later, someone broke into my office.”
Rebecca stared.
“You told me that was a burglary.”
“It was.”
“What did they take?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why does it matter?”
Mark swallowed.
“They left something.”
“What?”
He reached into his coat.
Thomas tensed.
Mark slowly removed a photograph.
He handed it to me.
It showed my mother.
Sarah.
Standing outside an apartment building.
She was holding my hand.
I was maybe four years old.
The image was taken from across the street.
On the back, written in black ink, were five words.
SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED GONE.
My entire body went numb.
Rebecca started crying again.
Thomas stared at the message.
Daniel whispered, “Alan.”
Mark nodded.
“I think so.”
Thomas looked at Mark.
“Where is he?”
Mark shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
My phone buzzed.
Everyone jumped.
Unknown number.
Another text.
I opened it.
YOU’RE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION.
A second message appeared.
DON’T ASK WHERE ALAN IS.
ASK WHO HAS BEEN PAYING HIM.
Then a photograph loaded.
A recent photograph.
A gray-haired man walking beside someone outside a hotel.
The gray-haired man had a caption beneath him.
ALAN PRICE.
The person beside him was unmistakable.
Rebecca gasped.
Emma said, “No.”
Thomas stared.
The person meeting Alan wasn’t Mark.
It was Kevin.
May you like
My manager.
The man who had been standing beside us all night.
