Chapter 5 - MARCUS COMES TO THE HOUSE
Marcus arrived at my father’s house at 9:14 that night.
Alone.
No attorneys.
No Vanessa.
He stood on the front porch in a dark overcoat while freezing rain collected on his shoulders.
My father checked the security camera.
“Don’t open it.”
Marcus rang again.
Then called my phone.
I answered.
“What?”
“You and I need to talk.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
Hearing him say my name that way brought seven years rushing back.
The warning tone.
Soft enough that outsiders missed it.
Sharp enough that I understood.
“I’m not alone anymore, Marcus.”
“I know.”
His voice changed.
“Your father is there.”
My skin prickled.
“You knew.”
Silence.
Then,
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“If I wanted to hurt you, Nora, I wouldn’t be standing on a porch where four cameras can see me.”
My father looked at me.
“He wants something.”
I already knew.
Marcus spoke again.
“Ask Elias about your mother.”
My breath stopped.
My mother had died when I was nineteen.
Car accident.
Rain.
A bridge outside Albany.
At least that was what I had always been told.
“What about her?”
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“Then ask him why he never told you she was investigating Hale Communities before she died.”
I turned toward my father.
His face changed.
That was enough.
I ended the call.
“What is he talking about?”
My father sat down slowly.
“Nora…”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“You do not get to say my name and then hide something again.”
He looked older than he had five minutes earlier.
“Your mother was an investigative accountant.”
“I know.”
“She was hired by a pension fund that had invested in one of Hale Communities’ earliest projects.”
My heart pounded.
“That was before Marcus and I met.”
“Yes.”
“What did she find?”
“Money missing.”
“How much?”
“Nearly eighteen million dollars.”
Dana stared at him.
“And she suspected Marcus?”
“Not initially.”
My father looked at me.
“She suspected his father.”
Richard Hale.
The founder of the company.
Marcus had inherited everything after Richard died.
My father continued.
“Your mother believed money was being routed through shell companies.”
“Did she prove it?”
“She found enough to frighten someone.”
I felt sick.
“The accident.”
My father’s voice lowered.
“The police said the road was wet.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“No.”
He looked me in the eyes.
“I never believed the accident was normal.”
I stood.
“You knew this?”
“I suspected.”
“And you let me marry Marcus?”
“I didn’t know who he was when you started seeing him.”
“You found out.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before you left home.”
My whole body shook.
“That’s why you hated him.”
“That’s why I begged you not to marry him.”
“You never told me!”
“I had no proof.”
“You could have told me!”
“You were in love.”
“So you decided for me?”
“I made a terrible choice.”
I turned toward the window.
Marcus still stood under the porch light.
Waiting.
He knew exactly what he had done.
He had brought my dead mother into this.
Dana suddenly held up the ledger.
“There’s another entry.”
We looked.
A payment dated three days before my mother’s death.
Recipient initials.
R.H.
Purpose:
ROAD CONSULTATION.
I felt the room tilt.
Then Marcus’s voice came through the video doorbell speaker.
“Now you understand why we need to talk.”
My father moved toward the door.
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Marcus smiled into the camera.
May you like
Then he said,
“Because if Claire Donnelly tells police what she knows, your mother won’t be the only Bennett whose secrets come out.”
