Chapter 4 - My Mother's Twenty-Eight-Year Lie
The knock came again.
Three slow taps.
Anna stared at the door.
“Thomas?”
I moved toward it.
“Daniel, wait.”
I opened it.
My mother stood outside.
Alone.
She looked from me to the letter in my hand.
Then to Anna.
“You opened Claire's envelope.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn closed the door behind her.
“Then we're out of time.”
“Out of time for what?”
She walked toward us.
I showed her the photograph.
“Who is Thomas Vale?”
My mother sat down.
“A man your father destroyed.”
“According to the government, he's dead.”
“He isn't.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“Did Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone knew everything except me.”
Evelyn looked at Anna.
“Tell him.”
Anna shook her head.
“No. You tell him.”
My mother folded her hands.
“After Anna was injured, your father needed someone to blame.”
“The accident report said we were playing.”
“Publicly. Privately, he needed control over the people who knew.”
“Thomas?”
“He was a medical resident at Mercer Foundation that night.”
I stared at her.
“He saw what happened?”
“He saw your father carry you into the emergency entrance. He heard us arguing. He saw Anna's injuries. He knew the story didn't fit.”
“Why didn't he go to police?”
“He tried.”
Of course.
“And Dad paid him?”
“No. Your father created accounts in Thomas's name and moved stolen foundation money through them.”
The $3.2 million.
“He framed him.”
“Yes.”
“Thomas ran?”
“He had no choice.”
My mother looked at Anna.
“Years later, he returned under another identity and became part of Anna's rehabilitation team.”
“Why?”
“Because he felt guilty for leaving.”
Anna spoke quietly.
“He gave me my life back.”
I looked at her wheelchair.
She smiled faintly.
“Not my legs. My life.”
“What happened four years ago?”
Evelyn's hands began trembling.
“Claire found him.”
“How?”
“She was smarter than all of us.”
That sounded like Claire.
“She found discrepancies in the foundation records and traced them to Thomas. Eventually she found Anna too.”
“And instead of telling me?”
“She confronted me.”
“What did you say?”
“The truth.”
“Which version?”
My mother absorbed that without defending herself.
“All of it.”
“Then why didn't Claire tell me?”
“Because she found something bigger.”
My patience snapped.
“What?”
“Your father's theft never stopped after he died.”
I stared at her.
“Someone was still moving money?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We didn't know.”
“Claire did.”
“She was close.”
“And then she died.”
My mother looked at me.
For the first time, I saw the thought neither of us wanted to say.
“You think Claire was murdered.”
“I don't know.”
“You've had four years to tell me.”
“I had four years to wonder whether telling you would put you and Lily next.”
I walked away.
I wanted to break something.
Instead, I pressed both hands against the window.
“Why did you take Lily here?”
Evelyn's voice softened.
“Because Anna loves her.”
“That's not enough.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because Claire asked me to.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Before she died, Claire made me promise that Lily would know Anna.”
“Secretly?”
“She believed whoever was watching the family might also be watching you.”
“This sounds insane.”
“It sounded insane to me too.”
“Until Claire died?”
My mother nodded.
Anna wheeled closer.
“Claire came here the night before her death. She was frightened.”
“What did she say?”
“That she had found the final account.”
“What account?”
“She didn't tell me.”
“Why not?”
“She said knowledge had become dangerous.”
I thought of the letter.
Find Thomas.
“Where is Thomas?”
My mother looked toward Room 317.
Then I understood.
“What's in that room?”
Neither woman answered.
I walked to the door.
Evelyn caught my arm.
“Daniel.”
I looked at her hand.
She released me.
I unlocked Room 317 with the brass key.
Inside was not a bedroom.
It was an archive.
Boxes.
Files.
Old computer drives.
Bank records.
Medical documents.
Photographs.
Twenty-eight years of evidence.
Against my father.
Maybe against someone else.
“Why 317?”
Anna answered.
“March seventeenth.”
“What happened then?”
“The day Mom finally came back for me.”
Evelyn began crying.
“I couldn't get you both. Your father had guards around you constantly. But I got Anna out of the facility.”
“And hid her?”
“It was the only way I could protect her.”
“For twenty-eight years?”
“For as long as your father had power.”
“He's dead.”
“But the person who helped him isn't.”
I turned.
“Who?”
My mother looked at the floor.
“Your uncle.”
“Robert?”
My father's younger brother.
Robert Mercer had been chairman of our charitable foundation for almost thirty years.
He had hugged me at my wedding.
He had held Lily at Claire's funeral.
He had sat beside me while I signed papers transferring control of the foundation after my father's death.
“No.”
“I hoped I was wrong.”
“Evidence?”
She pointed to the boxes.
I opened one.
Transfers.
Shell corporations.
Property records.
Then I found a photograph.
My father.
Robert.
Thomas.
A fourth man.
On the back was a date.
The night Anna was injured.
“What was Robert doing there?”
“He helped your father clean everything up.”
I felt sick.
“Does he know Anna is alive?”
“We don't think so.”
“Does he know Thomas is alive?”
“Probably.”
“Then why fake Thomas's death?”
“To keep Robert from searching.”
“Who arranged it?”
“Claire.”
I closed my eyes.
My wife had been fighting a war while I worried about quarterly earnings.
“She protected all of you,” Anna said.
“Except herself.”
No one answered.
I searched the archive until sunrise.
At 5:18 a.m., I found a folder marked L.M.
Lily Mercer.
Inside were copies of school records.
Medical appointments.
Photographs.
Someone had been tracking my daughter.
I looked at my mother.
“Did you make this?”
“No.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
My blood turned cold.
At the bottom was a photograph taken three weeks earlier.
Lily leaving school.
On the back:
SHE KNOWS ANNA.
Someone knew.
Someone had discovered the secret.
My phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
I opened it.
There was a photograph of me standing inside Room 317.
Taken minutes earlier.
Underneath were seven words.
YOUR FATHER SHOULD HAVE FINISHED THE JOB.
Then another message appeared.
It contained Lily's school address.
May you like
And one final sentence:
I'M ALREADY ON MY WAY.
