Chapter 5
I thought my mother had finally said something that didn’t fit.
“Anna told me she married someone in Kentucky.”
“She did.”
“Then who was Dr. Reed?”
“Her first husband.”
My head started pounding.
“You said she left Nashville after giving me up.”
“She did.”
“And married Dr. Reed?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two years later.”
“Why have I never heard any of this?”
Mom gave a broken laugh.
“Because we became very good at pretending.”
I looked at Rachel.
She stood near Megan’s kitchen window, arms folded.
I could see exhaustion on her face.
I felt it too.
“Did Anna know she was legally declared dead?”
“No.”
“How could she not?”
“She changed her name after marrying Samuel.”
“That still makes no sense.”
“Records weren’t connected the way they are now. She moved. She stopped speaking to us.”
“And Thomas used that.”
“Yes.”
“Why declare her dead?”
“Because she had filed a petition to challenge the guardianship.”
My stomach turned.
“She was trying to get me back.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad made her legally dead.”
“Mercer arranged the documents.”
“Dad agreed.”
“Yes.”
“What did Dr. Reed know?”
“Everything.”
Of course.
“He wanted Anna to go to police.”
“Yes.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
“Did Dad have anything to do with it?”
“No.”
Mom’s answer came fast.
Too fast.
“How do you know?”
“Because he was with me when Samuel’s car went off the road.”
“Was Mercer?”
Silence.
My skin prickled.
“Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the first answer that sounded real.
I ended the call after arranging to meet Mom with an attorney present.
Not Mercer.
Never Mercer again.
Rachel watched me set the phone down.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“Me neither.”
Megan had taken Lily to the park.
For the first time that morning, Rachel and I were alone.
I stared at her.
“How much did you know before yesterday?”
“About Anna?”
“Everything.”
Rachel didn’t flinch.
“She told me she believed Thomas had interfered with her custody case.”
“Did she tell you she had been declared dead?”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You knew my biological mother was legally dead while sitting across from me at dinner?”
“Michael.”
“How did you do that?”
“I was trying to prove it.”
“For three weeks?”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“And what would I have said?”
“The truth.”
She stared at me.
“An unknown woman contacted me online claiming she was your biological mother, that your parents stole you, that your father falsified her death, and that your mother was being blackmailed.”
“Yes.”
“You would have believed me immediately?”
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
Rachel nodded.
“That’s why I waited.”
“You could have told me someone contacted you.”
“I should have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Anna begged me not to.”
“That wasn’t her decision.”
“I know.”
“Or yours.”
“I know.”
The words came sharper than I intended.
Rachel’s expression changed.
Not afraid.
Guarded.
I stopped.
My anger wasn’t permission.
I sat.
“I’m sorry.”
She remained standing.
“I am angry.”
“You should be.”
“But I don’t want to turn anger into something else.”
Rachel looked down.
“You really scared yourself yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
That was the truth.
I had never thought of myself as violent.
That label belonged to other men.
Men on the news.
Men Rachel warned her friends about.
Men I despised.
Then one second of rage proved how quickly someone could cross a line.
“I keep replaying it.”
Rachel touched her cheek unconsciously.
“So do I.”
My stomach dropped.
“I wish I could undo it.”
“You can’t.”
“I know.”
“What you can do is make sure it never happens again.”
“I will.”
She looked at me.
“I need more than a promise.”
“You’ll get it.”
That afternoon, I called a counselor.
I felt ridiculous doing it.
Then ashamed for feeling ridiculous.
If Lily had watched me hit Rachel, would I have told her it was okay because I was upset?
No.
So I made the appointment.
Then I called Janet Wolfe, an attorney Rachel knew through a client.
Janet agreed to review the deed, account documents, and everything involving Mercer.
Within an hour, she found something.
“The transfer deed is notarized.”
“So?”
“The notary claims Michael signed it three days ago.”
Rachel and I looked at each other.
“I was in Atlanta three days ago for work.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Plane tickets. Hotel. Meetings.”
Janet smiled grimly.
“Good.”
“Who notarized it?”
She turned the page.
“David Mercer.”
Of course.
“He forged my signature and notarized it himself?”
“That would be incredibly reckless.”
“Could Mom have signed my name?”
Rachel stared at me.
I hated asking.
Janet said, “We need to determine that.”
“What happens now?”
“We notify the county recorder not to accept any transfer. Then we contact law enforcement about potential forgery.”
I sat back.
“My mother could be arrested.”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked at me.
“You don’t have to decide how you feel about that today.”
“I know.”
But I did know one thing.
I couldn’t protect my mother from consequences while demanding everyone else tell the truth.
The cycle had to stop somewhere.
That evening, Anna came to Megan’s house.
Rachel stayed upstairs with Lily.
I met Anna on the back porch.
She brought Caleb.
My brother.
I recognized him immediately for the opposite reason I recognized Anna.
He looked nothing like me.
Tall.
Dark beard.
Broad shoulders.
But when he stared at me, I saw the same cautious expression I had seen in the mirror all week.
Anna introduced us.
“Michael, this is Caleb.”
Caleb didn’t offer his hand.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
An excellent beginning to brotherhood.
We sat.
Anna looked between us nervously.
I asked Caleb, “You contacted Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Why not me?”
“Because I didn’t know if you were part of it.”
“Part of what?”
“Mercer’s scheme.”
I almost laughed.
“You thought I was helping someone steal money from an account in my own name?”
“I didn’t know what you knew.”
“That seems to be everyone’s favorite excuse.”
Caleb didn’t react.
“I’ve spent six months investigating this.”
“Why?”
He looked at Anna.
“Because she got a letter saying she owed taxes on an account she’d never seen.”
“The account in my name?”
“No.”
My stomach tightened.
“Another account?”
Caleb nodded.
“Three.”
He opened a laptop.
“One in Mom’s legal name. One under the name Anna Reed.”
Her first married name.
“And one under your name.”
“How much?”
“Total deposits over twenty years?”
“Yes.”
“More than one-point-four million.”
Rachel came downstairs when she heard that.
I didn’t ask her to leave.
Whatever else happened between us, this affected her and Lily too.
“Where did the money come from?” she asked.
Caleb answered.
“Thomas.”
My father.
“He was putting money back?”
“Looks like it.”
“Then who took it?”
“Some withdrawals were Evelyn.”
I closed my eyes.
“How much?”
“About one hundred eighty thousand, like Mom said.”
“And the rest?”
Caleb turned the screen.
“David Mercer.”
Hundreds of transfers.
Consulting fees.
Legal fees.
Administrative charges.
Some legitimate-looking.
Some not.
“He stole nearly a million dollars?”
“Possibly more.”
Anna looked down.
“Your father may have spent the last twenty years trying to repay me.”
That was difficult to hear.
Thomas had done terrible things.
Maybe he had also regretted them.
People were inconvenient that way.
They rarely fit cleanly into villain or victim.
“What about Dr. Reed?” I asked.
Caleb stiffened.
Anna went pale.
“Evelyn told you.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Caleb.
“Samuel was your father?”
He nodded.
That stopped me.
Caleb wasn’t only Anna’s son.
He was Dr. Samuel Reed’s son.
The man who died after trying to expose what Thomas and Mercer had done.
“How old were you?”
“Six months.”
My chest tightened.
“So you grew up without your father too.”
Caleb laughed bitterly.
“Difference is I knew mine was dead.”
I deserved that.
“Do you think Thomas caused his death?”
“I used to.”
“And now?”
“I think Mercer did.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Why?”
Caleb opened another file.
“A week before Samuel died, he wrote to an insurance investigator.”
He showed us a scanned letter.
Samuel claimed someone had falsified medical and death records.
He named Thomas.
Evelyn.
And David Mercer.
Three days before Samuel’s death, he told a coworker he had evidence proving Mercer had bribed a county clerk.
Then his car went off a rural road.
The police report called it an accident.
Caleb pointed toward the vehicle inspection.
“Brake line failure.”
I stared.
“That sounds suspicious.”
“It was written off as wear.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“No.”
“Any evidence?”
“Not yet.”
Anna whispered, “Samuel told me he was afraid.”
I looked at her.
“Of Thomas?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“Mercer.”
“What did he say?”
“That Mercer had more to lose.”
Caleb closed the laptop.
“Thomas was protecting a family secret.”
“Mercer?”
“Mercer was protecting a career built on fraud.”
Rachel suddenly asked, “Why is Mercer blackmailing Evelyn now?”
Caleb nodded.
“Good question.”
He opened another document.
Three weeks earlier, a new attorney had contacted Anna after finding irregularities in the old settlement account.
An audit was coming.
Mercer knew it.
“If auditors find his transfers, he’s finished.”
“So he needs money,” I said.
“Yes.”
“How does transferring my house to Mom help?”
“Because Evelyn already signed an agreement to sell it.”
My blood went cold.
“To who?”
Caleb turned the laptop.
A purchase contract.
Buyer:
MERCER DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC.
Price:
$475,000.
I stared at it.
Our house was worth more than twice that.
“He was going to take our house.”
Caleb nodded.
“And use the sale paperwork to make it look like Evelyn repaid the missing funds.”
Rachel looked horrified.
“He steals the money, takes our house for half its value, and makes Evelyn look responsible.”
“Exactly.”
I stood.
“Then we go to police.”
Anna touched my arm.
“Michael.”
“What?”
“Mercer knows you have the folder.”
“So?”
“He has spent thirty years making people afraid.”
“I’m done being afraid.”
Caleb shook his head.
“You should still be careful.”
“Why?”
He looked directly at me.
“Because I followed Mercer last night.”
“And?”
“He didn’t go home.”
“Where did he go?”
Caleb turned the laptop one final time.
A photograph showed Mercer standing outside a house.
My mother’s house.
But he wasn’t alone.
A younger man stood beside him.
I recognized him.
My best friend.
Daniel Brooks.
The man who had been my best man.
The man who worked with me every day.
The man who had introduced Rachel and me eleven years earlier.
I stared at the photograph.
“What is Daniel doing with Mercer?”
May you like
Caleb’s expression hardened.
“That’s what I think you need to ask him.”
