Chapter 12 - THE HALF TRUTH
Two detectives spoke to me in Alexander’s study. I told them about the flash drive and my mother’s letter. Marcus gave them the copy procedure and the storage facility’s report.
They did not arrest me. They did ask me to make a formal statement at the precinct.
Before I left, Eleanor came into the study carrying another envelope.
“I owe you the truth,” she said.
Alexander stood beside the desk. “All of it this time.”
Eleanor had known about the first suspicious transfer. Hannah brought it to her before speaking to Alexander. Eleanor assumed there was an accounting explanation and asked Mrs. Bell to investigate.
“You asked the person taking the money,” I said.
“I didn’t know that then.”
“Hannah did.”
Eleanor nodded. “She came back with proof. She wanted to tell Alexander. I begged her to wait until I could speak to the family attorneys.”
“Why?” Alexander asked.
“I was afraid the accusation would become public before we understood it.”
Hannah refused to wait. She left for the lawyer’s office. On the way, her car collided with a delivery truck during heavy rain.
Eleanor had hidden their argument because she could not bear for Alexander to know she had delayed Hannah.
“That is why I didn’t play you the voicemail,” she said. “I told myself it changed nothing. I was wrong.”
It explained Eleanor’s lie. It did not explain the reference entered in Hannah’s name years later or Mrs. Bell’s visit to Noah’s room.
I went to the precinct with the detectives. They took my statement and a copy of the flash drive. Bell’s complaint appeared thin once they saw Hannah’s video, but they warned me the investigation would take time.
When I returned, Noah was sitting on the front steps with Alexander.
“I told Dad something,” he said.
Alexander looked troubled. “Tell Emma.”
Noah twisted Bunny’s ear.
“Mrs. Bell said there’s a paper that can make you stay forever.”
“What paper?” I asked.
“She said if you love me, you’ll sign it.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened. “Did she show it to you?”
Noah nodded. “It’s in her blue folder.”
Marcus searched Bell’s locked office under the authority of the household investigation. The blue folder was gone, but a scanned draft remained on her computer.
It was a custody petition.
It claimed Alexander was often absent, Eleanor was unfit, and I had become Noah’s primary caregiver. Bell had listed me as a willing witness.
I had never seen it.
May you like
At the bottom was a date: the petition was scheduled to be filed in forty-eight hours.
And beside my name was another forged signature.
