Chapter 10 - Her Father’s ConfessionRobert didn’t deny it.
That hurt more than any excuse could have.
They returned to Susan’s office.
Thomas came too.
Emily sat across from her father with Margaret’s letter in her hands.
“Start talking.”
Robert looked twenty years older.
“Before I met your mother, I worked for a construction supplier.”
Emily knew that.
“I had debts.”
“What kind?”
“Gambling.”
Emily stared.
Robert had lectured her about financial responsibility her entire life.
He saw the disbelief.
“I haven’t gambled in thirty-two years.”
“That doesn’t answer what happened.”
Robert nodded.
“Margaret and Thomas were developing three properties. I supplied materials.”
Thomas sat quietly near the window.
Robert continued.
“I learned where their investor deposits were held.”
“And stole them?”
“I borrowed money.”
Thomas laughed once.
“Thieves love that word.”
Robert looked down.
“I intended to return it.”
“How much?”
“Forty thousand.”
In early-1990s money, it was enormous.
“What happened?”
“The project failed before I could replace it.”
“And Thomas got blamed.”
“Yes.”
Emily felt sick.
“Did Mom know?”
“Not then.”
“When did she find out?”
“Years later.”
“After she married you?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at Thomas.
“And you?”
“I suspected somebody connected to the supplier. I couldn’t prove who.”
“So you ran?”
“I left before criminal charges could be filed.”
Thomas’s shame looked genuine.
“I was twenty-eight and terrified.”
Emily returned her attention to Robert.
“Mom found out you destroyed his life.”
Robert’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“And stayed with you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I asked her that every year.”
His voice broke.
“She said because the man she married wasn’t the man who stole that money.”
Emily didn’t know how to process that.
Robert had been her safe place.
The dependable parent.
The man who never missed a birthday.
The grandfather who arrived with groceries because Emily said she hadn’t slept.
Both things could apparently be true.
A man could do something terrible and spend decades becoming someone else.
The realization terrified her because it raised another question.
Could Ryan ever change?
And if he could, did that mean she should wait?
The answer came immediately.
No.
Robert had confessed to Margaret when she confronted him.
He spent years repaying what he could.
Ryan was still building lies.
There was a difference.
Thomas leaned forward.
“Margaret bought out my interest later.”
“With what money?” Emily asked.
“Her inheritance.”
“So the house legally became hers.”
“Yes.”
“And the old agreement doesn’t change that.”
“No.”
Emily frowned.
“Then Ryan’s plan was based on nothing.”
“Not exactly.”
Thomas removed another document.
“This is why he wanted me.”
It was an affidavit.
Already prepared.
Thomas was supposed to swear that Margaret’s buyout agreement was forged.
Emily stared.
“Was it?”
“No.”
“Ryan wanted you to lie?”
“He offered me two hundred thousand dollars.”
“From where?”
Thomas smiled grimly.
“Your money, once he got access.”
Emily closed her eyes.
The audacity was almost impressive.
Ryan planned to use her inheritance to pay a man to challenge her ownership so Ryan’s company could acquire her property.
Susan asked, “Did you sign?”
“No.”
“Do you have communications showing the offer?”
Thomas handed her his phone.
“Everything.”
For the first time, Emily felt the balance shifting.
Ryan’s plan had weaknesses.
Witnesses.
Messages.
Recordings.
He wasn’t untouchable.
Her phone buzzed.
Susan looked at the screen.
“Do not answer.”
It was Ryan.
Despite the court order.
A text appeared.
We need to talk before you make a mistake you can’t undo.
Another.
Claire is lying to both of us.
Emily stared.
Then:
Your mother’s letter is not with me.
Her heartbeat changed.
How did Ryan know she was looking for it?
Another message.
But I know where it is.
Susan photographed the screen.
“Don’t respond.”
Emily looked at her.
“What if he really knows?”
“He wants contact.”
“What if Mom’s letter explains everything?”
“Then we obtain it legally.”
Another text.
Ask Robert what Margaret put in the blue box.
Emily looked at her father.
His face changed.
“There was a blue box?”
Robert whispered, “Yes.”
“Where?”
“I haven’t seen it since she died.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily stood.
“How many things in my family do you not know?”
Robert looked ashamed.
Thomas suddenly spoke.
“I know what the blue box was.”
Everyone turned.
Thomas stared at Margaret’s letter.
“She kept old financial records in it.”
Robert frowned.
“How would you know?”
“Because it belonged to me.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
“What records?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Original documents from the development partnership.”
Susan leaned forward.
“Including the buyout?”
“Possibly.”
Emily understood.
If the blue box contained proof Thomas had sold his interest legally, Ryan’s entire property scheme collapsed.
“Where did Mom keep it?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Somewhere no lawyer would look.”
Robert suddenly went pale.
“What?”
Emily stared at him.
“Dad?”
Robert looked toward her.
“The house.”
“What about it?”
“When we renovated the kitchen, Margaret refused to replace one cabinet.”
Emily felt a chill.
“Which one?”
“The narrow cabinet under the old pantry wall.”
The pantry wall still existed.
Ryan had remodeled almost everything else.
Robert stood.
“She said it wasn’t empty.”
Emily remembered something.
The pantry cabinet had always been difficult to open.
Ryan once tried removing it.
Emily had stopped him because it reminded her of her mother.
Now she understood why Ryan had been so determined to replace it.
The blue box had never disappeared.
May you like
It might still be inside the house.
And Ryan had eighteen days to find it before Emily’s trust became hers.
Related Stories
