Chapter 7 - Daniel’s Mistake
That afternoon Elias drove Margaret and Lucy to a small furnished apartment Rachel had arranged through a family friend.
Margaret barely spoke.
When they entered, she went directly to the window.
“I signed without reading.”
Elias set the suitcase down.
“Margaret—”
“I signed whatever Daniel put in front of me.”
“You trusted your son.”
“That doesn’t make me less foolish.”
Lucy sat on the sofa.
“Dad wouldn’t trick you.”
Margaret turned.
“No. But someone might have changed what I signed.”
Elias nodded.
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Margaret looked at him.
“You keep saying ‘we.’”
“Because Daniel asked me to help.”
“Daniel also spent eighteen months thinking you were a thief.”
The words hit.
Elias did not defend himself.
Lucy watched him.
“Why didn’t you make Dad believe you?”
He sat across from her.
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Your father was scared.”
“Of you?”
“Of losing his marriage.”
Lucy frowned.
Elias took a breath.
“When I first showed him suspicious payments, he confronted Vanessa.”
“What did she say?”
“That I hated her.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did she hate you?”
“Yes.”
That almost made Lucy smile.
Almost.
“She told Daniel I had always resented how much influence she had over him. Then she showed him emails that made it look like I had shared confidential company information.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
“Fake emails?”
“Altered emails.”
Margaret turned from the window.
“Why didn’t Daniel verify them?”
“He should have.”
There was no softness in Elias’s answer.
“He made a serious mistake.”
Lucy had never heard an adult say that about Daniel.
Everyone since his death had spoken as if dying had erased every flaw.
Elias did not.
“He trusted Vanessa because trusting her was easier than admitting his marriage might be built on lies.”
Lucy stared at her hands.
“Then he fired you.”
“Yes.”
“Were you angry?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hate him?”
“For a while.”
Margaret looked surprised.
Elias continued.
“I lost a job I helped build. I lost my closest friend. My name was damaged.”
“What changed?”
“Six weeks ago Daniel called me.”
Elias looked away.
“He sounded terrible.”
“What did he say?” Lucy whispered.
Elias smiled sadly.
“The first thing?”
“Yes.”
“He said, ‘I think I owe you the worst apology in human history.’”
Lucy gave a tiny laugh through her tears.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He asked me to meet him.”
“Where?”
“A park near the hospital.”
“He could walk?”
“Barely. He was in a wheelchair.”
Margaret wiped her eyes.
“He never told me.”
“He didn’t want you frightened.”
“I was already frightened.”
“I know.”
Elias told them Daniel had discovered Ashmere invoices tied to accounts Vanessa controlled indirectly.
He also discovered someone had accessed company banking records using his credentials while he was hospitalized.
“He thought Vanessa was preparing for his death.”
Margaret looked sick.
“Preparing how?”
“Moving money. Gathering documents. Establishing control.”
Lucy remembered the door.
This house is mine now.
“Did Dad know she would kick us out?”
“I don’t think he knew exactly what she would do.”
“But he knew something.”
“Yes.”
Margaret stared at Elias.
“Why didn’t he leave her?”
“He was dying.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No,” Elias said. “It’s the reason he gave.”
Silence.
Then Elias admitted something else.
“Daniel was afraid that if Vanessa learned he had turned against her, she would destroy financial records before we understood what she’d done.”
Margaret’s eyes hardened.
“So he pretended.”
“Yes.”
Lucy looked up.
“He lied to her.”
“Yes.”
“And to us.”
Elias hesitated.
“Yes.”
That hurt.
Lucy stood and walked into the small bedroom.
Margaret started after her.
Elias stopped her gently.
“Give her a minute.”
Inside, Lucy found her father’s brown jacket folded on the bed.
She pressed her face into it.
It no longer smelled like him.
That somehow made everything worse.
A few minutes later Margaret entered.
Lucy looked up.
“Why did Dad make me carry the paper?”
Margaret had no answer.
“I’m eight.”
“I know.”
“What if I lost it?”
“You didn’t.”
“What if I forgot?”
“You didn’t.”
“But I could have.”
Margaret sat beside her.
“Yes.”
Lucy began crying.
“He should have told you.”
Margaret pulled her close.
“Yes.”
For the first time, neither of them tried to defend Daniel.
They simply missed him.
Later that evening, Elias received a call from Rachel.
He listened without speaking.
Then he came into the bedroom doorway.
“We have access to the house tomorrow.”
Lucy sat up.
“Daniel’s office?”
“Yes.”
Margaret asked, “What are you hoping to find?”
Elias’s expression darkened.
“The original trust records.”
“And if they’re gone?”
“Then we find out who removed them.”
Lucy tightened her hand around the folded paper.
Because she suddenly suspected something.
Vanessa had not thrown them out simply because she was cruel.
She had wanted them gone quickly.
May you like
Before they could search the house.
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