Chapter 7 - What Thomas Had Been Hiding
Penelope stared at Margaret.
"No."
Margaret didn't blink.
"I buried her."
"No, you buried an empty coffin."
Penelope's knees weakened.
She remembered the funeral.
Closed casket.
Her mother's injuries had supposedly been too severe.
She'd never questioned it.
She had been seventeen.
Broken.
Alone.
Arthur moved suddenly.
Margaret struck the floor once with her cane.
"Don't."
Something about her voice stopped him.
Penelope barely noticed.
"Where is she?"
Margaret looked at her.
"Safe."
"Where?"
"I couldn't tell you."
"Seventeen years."
Her voice cracked.
"You let me believe my mother was dead for seventeen years."
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because Arthur believed it too."
Arthur's face confirmed it.
Penelope turned toward him.
"You didn't know."
He said nothing.
Margaret smiled without warmth.
"Evelyn was always smarter than you."
Footsteps thundered outside.
Larkin and Thomas entered.
Arthur immediately understood he'd been trapped.
Larkin crossed to Penelope.
"Are you okay?"
"No."
It was the most truthful answer she'd given all night.
Margaret handed Thomas the ledger.
"You know what to do."
Penelope looked at him.
"You knew?"
Thomas couldn't meet her eyes.
"You knew my mother was alive?"
"Not until two years ago."
Penelope slapped him.
The sound cracked through the warehouse.
Thomas accepted it.
Larkin said nothing.
"You watched me mourn her."
"I promised her."
"She doesn't get to ask that!"
"I know."
"You don't know anything."
Penelope backed away.
Every man in her life had apparently participated in deciding what she deserved to know.
Her boss.
His cousin.
His father.
Her mother.
Protection had become another word for control.
Margaret seemed to understand.
"Evelyn wanted to come back."
"Then why didn't she?"
"Because Arthur kept watching you."
Arthur's expression darkened.
Margaret continued.
"Every year, someone checked your financial records. Employment. Address. Credit. Richard's people traced it back to Arthur."
Penelope looked at him.
"You watched a child for seventeen years?"
Arthur remained silent.
That silence answered everything.
Larkin stepped toward him.
Penelope stopped him.
"No."
Arthur looked almost amused.
"Still protecting me?"
"No."
Penelope lifted her phone.
"Protecting the recording."
His face changed.
Everything he'd admitted had been captured.
Arthur lunged for the phone.
Thomas intercepted him.
The struggle lasted seconds.
No dramatic fight.
No heroic spectacle.
Just an aging executive suddenly discovering that decades of control couldn't save him from evidence.
Police arrived minutes later.
Not company security.
Federal financial investigators contacted by Melissa.
Arthur was taken away.
But Penelope barely watched.
Only one thing mattered.
"My mother."
Margaret gave her an address.
A small town three hours north.
Penelope left immediately.
Larkin offered to drive.
She refused.
"I need to do this alone."
He nodded.
No argument.
That mattered.
Dawn appeared as Penelope reached the town.
She found the house beside a lake.
Small.
Blue shutters.
Vegetable garden.
Nothing about it resembled the world she'd spent three years inside.
Penelope stood outside for five minutes.
Then walked to the door.
She knocked.
Footsteps approached.
The door opened.
A woman stood there.
Older.
Gray threaded through brown hair.
Lines around familiar eyes.
Penelope knew those eyes.
She had seen them every morning in the mirror.
Neither spoke.
Then Evelyn Woods whispered:
"Penny."
Nobody had called her that since she was seventeen.
Penelope's anger shattered.
"You were alive."
Evelyn began crying.
Penelope didn't move.
"You were alive."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You let me think I was alone."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
"I know."
Penelope wanted to embrace her.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to leave.
Instead she asked the only question that mattered.
"Why didn't you trust me?"
Evelyn's answer was almost inaudible.
"Because I trusted you too much."
Penelope laughed through tears.
"That makes no sense."
"I knew what you'd do."
"What?"
"You'd come looking for me."
Of course she would have.
"And Arthur would have followed you."
Penelope sat on the porch.
Her mother sat beside her.
For hours they talked.
Not enough to repair seventeen years.
Nothing could do that in one morning.
But enough to begin.
Evelyn explained Richard's plan.
The hidden trust.
The secret will.
The evidence.
She had spent years waiting until Arthur made a mistake.
Penelope had unknowingly forced that mistake.
By discovering the transaction pattern.
By opening 4217.
By refusing to remain invisible.
Near noon, Evelyn brought out one final envelope.
"Richard gave me this for Larkin."
Penelope stared.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
She drove back that afternoon.
Larkin was alone in his office.
For once, Penelope knocked.
"Come in."
He stood when he saw her.
"Did you find her?"
"Yes."
He exhaled.
"How are you?"
"I don't know yet."
"Fair."
Penelope handed him the envelope.
"From your father."
Larkin opened it.
Inside was a letter.
He read silently.
Then sat down.
Penelope waited.
Eventually he handed it to her.
Son,
If this reaches you, then I've failed to tell you the truth myself.
I built something I became ashamed of.
I told myself power justified cruelty.
It doesn't.
Evelyn taught me that.
If you inherit my company, don't inherit my excuses.
And if Penelope Woods ever stands in front of you, understand that her mother saved our family when I couldn't.
Treat her better than I treated the people around me.
Larkin stopped reading.
Penelope looked at him.
The irony was painful.
His father had specifically asked him to treat her well.
Larkin had invited her to a gala as a joke.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Penelope folded the letter.
"I know."
"That doesn't fix it."
"No."
"What does?"
She considered the question.
"Change."
He nodded.
Penelope returned to her desk.
Her old life remained scattered around it.
She opened her computer.
One unread email waited.
Sender:
THOMAS DIXON.
Subject:
YOU NEED TO SEE THIS BEFORE YOU TRUST LARKIN.
Penelope opened it.
There was no message.
Only a video recorded three years earlier.
The date was the day before Penelope had been hired.
She pressed play.
Larkin appeared on-screen.
Arthur stood beside him.
Arthur placed Penelope's résumé on the desk.
May you like
Then Larkin said something that made her blood turn cold.
"Hire her. I already know exactly who she is."
