Chương 10
He looked toward the living room.
"Can we sit?"
We did.
Claire brought her chair from the kitchen and positioned it slightly behind me.
Jared noticed.
"Is she security?"
Claire said, "Today I am."
He nodded.
"Fair."
Then he looked at me.
"I called my accountant."
My body tightened.
Rebecca's warning flashed through my head.
"What did you tell him?"
"That I needed every ownership document connected to the restaurant."
"And?"
"He got weird."
"What kind of weird?"
"The kind where somebody starts saying 'we should discuss this in person' instead of answering a yes-or-no question."
Claire said, "That's generally a bad genre of weird."
Jared rubbed his palms against his jeans.
"He told me Northline Hospitality owns sixty percent of the restaurant."
I kept my face still.
"And you own Northline?"
"That's what I thought."
I waited.
He laughed once.
"I don't."
Claire leaned forward.
"Who does?"
Jared looked at me.
"I own ten percent."
The number surprised me.
"Who owns the rest?"
"Forty percent is held by Hale Family Holdings."
My stomach tightened.
"And the other fifty?"
He swallowed.
"A trust."
I knew before he said whose.
He looked at the floor.
"Yours."
Claire said nothing.
Neither did I.
Jared's eyes finally rose to mine.
"I swear to God, Naomi, I didn't know."
I watched his face.
He had lied to me before.
About rent.
About money.
About why he needed loans.
Jared lied badly when cornered.
He added details.
He smiled too much.
He became offended.
Now he only looked tired.
"How did my trust end up owning your restaurant?"
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
"I know."
His voice cracked.
"I know."
Claire shifted behind me.
Jared pressed both hands together.
"I called Mom after I found out."
My pulse quickened.
"What did she say?"
"That it was temporary."
Of course.
"Everything is temporary with her until twenty years pass."
He nodded.
"Then she told me to stop asking questions."
"What did you do?"
"I asked more."
That was not like him.
Maybe that was why I believed it.
"And?"
He looked toward the window.
"She said Dad was losing his mind."
Claire muttered something.
Jared continued.
"She said Johnny filled his head with accusations."
My throat tightened.
"What else?"
"She said you were vulnerable."
Claire's hand touched my shoulder.
"Anything else?"
Jared hesitated.
There it was.
The thing he had actually come to say.
"What?"
He rubbed his cheek.
"She said something about Johnny."
I felt my heartbeat in my fingertips.
"What about him?"
"She said he should've minded his own business."
I stared at him.
"Exact words."
Jared swallowed.
"She said, 'That man never knew when to leave things alone.'"
Claire went still.
I heard Rebecca in my head.
Don't let timing become proof.
I forced myself to breathe.
"That could mean anything."
Jared nodded too quickly.
"I know."
"Did she say anything about the accident?"
"No."
"Anything threatening?"
"No."
"Then don't turn it into something else."
He looked relieved.
That frightened me.
Then his relief disappeared.
"There's more."
Claire's fingers tightened on my shoulder.
Jared reached into his pocket.
For one second, I expected a document.
Instead, he pulled out an old brass key.
"I went to Dad's office."
I stared at it.
"Why?"
"Because when we were kids, he kept important papers in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet."
I almost laughed.
"You're joking."
"No."
"You broke into Dad's office?"
"I have a key."
"Why do you have a key?"
He looked embarrassed.
"I used to sleep there sometimes after the bar closed."
Claire blinked.
"Of course you did."
Jared ignored her.
"The drawer was locked."
"So?"
"So the little key was still taped underneath the desk."
I stared at him.
Our father had hidden spare keys that way our entire childhood.
It was stupid.
It was completely believable.
"What was inside?"
Jared looked at me.
"Nothing about the trust."
My shoulders dropped slightly.
Then he added, "But there was a copy of Johnny's letter."
I stopped breathing.
"What letter?"
"Not the one he left you."
Jared reached back into his pocket.
This time he pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
"He wrote Dad three weeks before the accident."
I didn't take it.
Jared held it between us.
"Naomi, Johnny told Dad he was going to give everything to you on April fifteenth."
The accident had happened on April twelfth.
I took the paper from Jared with both hands because one hand was no longer steady enough.
Johnny had written it on plain office stationery, the kind he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk because he hated paying for personalized letterhead.
Richard, I am giving Naomi the complete file on April 15 unless you give me a reason not to.
I stopped there.
Claire leaned forward.
"Keep going."
My eyes moved to the next line.
I am not asking you to protect Susan.
I am asking you to tell me what happened before Naomi has to learn it from strangers.
Dad's name blurred.
I blinked until the ink sharpened again.
There was more.
Johnny had listed specific transfers.
Dates.
Amounts.
One account number I recognized from Rebecca's notes.
At the bottom, he had written one final paragraph.
If you believe there is an explanation that does not involve fraud, I will listen.
If you know there isn't, then this is your last chance to tell your daughter the truth yourself.
I lowered the page.
Claire said nothing.
Jared watched my face.
"There's an envelope too."
"What?"
He reached into his sweatshirt pocket again.
"Same drawer."
I stared at him.
"You took everything?"
"Not everything."
"How do you know?"
He looked defensive for half a second, then seemed to catch himself.
"I took what had Johnny's name on it."
"That's evidence."
"I know that now."
"You knew it then."
"I knew Mom was hiding things."
"That is not the same thing."
His jaw tightened.
Claire said quietly, "He's here now."
May you like
I looked at her.
She lifted one shoulder.
