Chương 10
Then she said, "Because there's something else."
I closed my eyes.
"Of course there is."
She flinched at the sarcasm.
I was too tired to take it back.
Derek leaned against the doorframe.
"What now?"
Mom rubbed both hands over her bare arms.
"Richard keeps files in the basement office."
"Fine."
"He keeps them locked."
"Also fine."
"He doesn't know I know the code."
Derek stared at her.
"You've been going through his files?"
"No."
"But you know the code."
"I've watched him enter it."
I looked at her.
"Then why can't we go?"
She hesitated.
"Because I opened it once."
Derek let out a long breath.
"What did you find?"
Mom's eyes met mine.
"Your name."
The cold air seemed to sharpen.
"On what?"
"I don't know."
"You opened the cabinet and saw my name but didn't look?"
"I looked."
Her voice dropped.
"I just didn't understand what I was seeing."
Derek muttered, "That's becoming a theme."
She turned on him.
"Do you think I don't know that?"
He looked away.
Mom pressed her lips together and continued.
"There were folders with property records, business loans, old tax documents."
"And mine?"
"One file had your father's name on it."
My fingers tightened around the box.
"Mark Morgan."
She nodded.
"There were copies of things I'd already seen."
"Insurance?"
"Yes."
"And?"
Her face went pale again.
"A loan application."
I stared at her.
"In Dad's name?"
"No."
"In Richard's."
That made less sense.
"Why would Dad's name be in Richard's loan file?"
"I don't know."
Derek answered before she could.
"Collateral."
We both looked at him.
He held up his phone.
"My accountant used that word when I asked what Dad did with my trust."
His thumb moved across the screen.
"He didn't withdraw everything at once."
"What did he do?"
"He pledged the account."
I felt the pieces trying to arrange themselves.
"So he borrowed against Derek's trust."
"Yeah."
"And you're saying he may have done something similar with Dad's assets."
Mom shook her head.
"There shouldn't have been anything left to pledge."
"Unless there was."
Derek looked at me.
"Or unless he used something that wasn't his."
The terrace door opened again.
Caroline Mercer stood there holding her clutch.
"I'm sorry."
She looked embarrassed.
"I wasn't trying to listen."
At this point, that hardly mattered.
"My husband is asking whether Linda is all right."
Mom straightened instinctively.
"I'm fine."
Caroline's face suggested she did not believe her.
"He also asked whether Richard left."
Derek answered.
"Yeah."
Caroline hesitated.
"Then you should probably know his car isn't in the lot."
Mom closed her eyes.
"How long ago?"
"I don't know."
Caroline looked at me.
"The valet said maybe ten minutes."
Jonah was still at least twenty-five minutes away.
I checked my phone.
Then I made a decision I would later wish I had made more carefully.
"We go to the house."
Mom looked at me.
"Thea."
"We don't touch anything we don't have a right to touch."
I glanced at Derek.
"We don't break locks."
He nodded.
"We don't take papers."
Another nod.
"We photograph anything we're legally allowed to see, and we call an attorney before doing more."
Mom stood very still.
"That sounds like something your father would say."
I looked at her.
"Then maybe we should try it."
The drive from the country club took fourteen minutes.
I knew because Derek's navigation announced every turn while none of us spoke.
Mom sat in the back seat of my car with her shoes on the floor and the faded red-tagged bank key clutched in one hand.
Derek rode beside me.
At the first red light, he turned the brightness down on his phone.
"My accountant sent more."
I kept my eyes on the road.
"What?"
"Three loans."
"Against your trust?"
"Two against the trust."
His voice flattened.
"The third was secured by my condo."
I looked at him.
"You own a condo?"
"Apparently less than I thought."
He gave a humorless laugh.
"Dad helped me buy it."
Mom leaned forward from the back.
"Richard told me he gave you the down payment."
"He did."
Derek looked at the screen.
"Then he used the condo to guarantee a business line I never knew about."
My anger shifted direction again.
At seventeen, I had believed Derek was protected because he was Richard's son.
Maybe he had been.
Until protection became another asset.
"Can he do that without your signature?"
"I signed things."
His voice grew quieter.
"I didn't read everything."
No one answered.
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of the phone.
"He told me it was for refinancing."
I knew enough adults in expensive clothes to understand how often financial ruin began with a signature given to someone familiar.
The light changed.
I drove on.
The suburban streets became more recognizable as we got closer.
I hated that.
A pharmacy where Mom used to buy shampoo.
The pizza place Richard liked.
The park where I once sat for two hours after he told me my scholarship wasn't impressive because "universities hand those things out for optics."
Then we turned onto the street.
The house looked almost exactly as I remembered.
Larger than it deserved to.
Smaller than it had in my head.
The porch light was on.
Richard's SUV sat crooked in the driveway.
"He's here," Mom whispered.
I parked at the curb.
Derek opened his door.
I caught his arm.
"Wait."
He looked at me.
"We don't know what mood he's in."
"He's my dad."
"That doesn't answer me."
Mom leaned between the seats.
"He has never hit me."
I turned.
"That's not what I asked."
Her face tightened.
"No."
Then she added, "But he has broken things."
That was enough.
I called Jonah.
He answered immediately.
"I'm twelve minutes away."
"We're at the house."
A pause.
"Why?"
"Because Richard left."
"Thea."
"I know."
"Stay outside."
I looked through the windshield.
A light moved upstairs.
"That's not going to happen."
May you like
He exhaled.
"Then keep me on speaker."
