Chapter 14 - THE LAST SECRET
I stared at Ramirez.
“What did you just say?”
My mother stopped moving.
Noah was still holding her.
“Mom?”
She looked away.
I felt something inside me collapse.
“No.”
Ramirez showed me the phone.
Messages between Mom and Mason.
Not recent.
Years old.
I scrolled.
My hands shook.
“You knew him before Vanessa?”
Mom sat down slowly.
“Yes.”
Lauren whispered, “Mom…”
“How?”
Mom began crying.
“I introduced them.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“You what?”
“Mason worked for your father years ago.”
“What?”
“Your father caught him stealing.”
I stared.
Dad had died three years earlier.
Cancer.
I remembered long hospital nights.
Mom crying beside his bed.
“What does that have to do with Vanessa?”
“Mason hated our family.”
“So you introduced him to my wife?”
“Before she was your wife.”
My mind spun.
Mom explained.
Years earlier, Vanessa had worked at a company connected to my father.
Mason met her through my mother.
They dated.
Later, Vanessa met me.
Mom knew.
And said nothing.
“Why?”
“I thought she had changed.”
I laughed.
Everyone flinched.
“You thought everybody changed.”
Mom cried harder.
“I was ashamed.”
“No. You were protecting secrets.”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
Then she told me the worst part.
After Dad died, Mason contacted her.
He claimed he had documents proving Dad had hidden money.
Mom secretly paid him.
Then paid again.
And again.
Vanessa found out.
Instead of warning me, she joined him.
Fraud turned into blackmail.
Blackmail turned into theft.
And eventually, murder planning.
“You gave him access to my family.”
Mom’s voice broke.
“I never knew it would become this.”
“That sentence means nothing anymore.”
She covered her face.
Noah watched us.
I stopped.
This wasn’t the place.
Not in front of him.
I turned away.
Vanessa was being loaded into an ambulance.
She called my name.
I walked over.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“I’m going to tell them everything.”
“You should.”
“I know you hate me.”
“I don’t know what I feel.”
She nodded.
“I loved you.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
She cried.
“I did.”
“No. You loved what I gave you. Safety. Money. A house. A family.”
“That’s not fair.”
I almost laughed.
“Fair?”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry about Noah.”
“Don’t ask him to forgive you.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t contact him.”
Her eyes opened.
“Ever.”
She swallowed.
“Okay.”
Police closed the ambulance doors.
I watched it leave.
Then Noah walked to me.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Are we going home?”
I looked toward the sunrise.
Our house was still a crime scene.
Our family was broken.
My marriage was over.
My business had been robbed.
My mother had lied for years.
But my son was standing beside me.
Alive.
Holding my hand.
“Not yet,” I said.
“Where are we going?”
I looked down at him.
“Somewhere new.”
He thought about it.
“Can I get pancakes first?”
For the first time all night, I smiled.
“Yeah, buddy.”
Then Ramirez called my name.
I turned.
“There’s one more thing.”
He held up an evidence bag.
Inside was another document.
A letter.
Written by my father before he died.
May you like
Addressed to me.
And my mother had hidden it for three years.
