Two hours later, Daniel sat across from me in Margaret Hale’s conference room. He had nowhere else to go. His corporate deal was dead, his accounts were frozen, and he looked like a man who had aged ten years in a single afternoon.
“Start talking,” I said, placing the bank statements highlighting the payments to Patricia Bennett on the table.
Daniel stared at the papers, his shoulders slumping. The fight had completely drained out of him.
“Mom is going to kill me,” he whispered.
“Your mother doesn’t dictate terms anymore,” Margaret said sharply. “Explain the restitution payments to Patricia.”
Daniel rubbed a trembling hand over his face. “Mom and Aunt Patty haven’t spoken in nine years. I always told you it was about their parents’ estate. That was a lie.”
He looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot. “Two years ago, Aunt Patty got sick. She needed money for medical bills and reached out to me directly. That’s when she told me the truth. Nine years ago, Mom convinced Patty to give her power of attorney over their mother’s estate. Mom liquidated everything, took Patty’s half of the inheritance—nearly eighty thousand dollars—and blew it all on a failed real estate scam.”
I sat back, stunned. Lorraine, the woman who constantly lectured me on morality and proper behavior, was a thief who had robbed her own sister.
“Patty found out two years ago and threatened to go to the police,” Daniel continued, his voice breaking. “If she pressed charges, Mom would have gone to prison. So… I made a deal with Patty. I told her I would pay back every cent Mom stole, plus interest, if she kept quiet.”
“And you used my company to do it,” I said, the disgust thick in my throat. “You stole from me to cover up your mother’s crimes. Is that why she’s living in my house right now? Because she’s broke?”
“Yes,” Daniel choked out. “The guilt… the stress of hiding it all… it made me crazy. That’s why I’d lose my temper. That’s why I tried to sell the company. I just wanted to pay everything off and be free of her.”
I felt no pity for him. Only a profound, chilling clarity. They were both parasites, feeding off whatever host they could latch onto.
Margaret opened her gray archive box and pulled out a faded, manila envelope. “There is another layer to this, Daniel. And it concerns why your mother hates Claire so much.”
Margaret slid an old, creased photograph onto the table.
It showed four women standing in front of a half-renovated Victorian house. Aunt Evelyn. A woman with striking features who looked remarkably like Evelyn. Patricia Bennett. And a much younger, but unmistakably smug, Lorraine.
On the back, written in Evelyn’s elegant script, were the words: Hart & Bennett Restoration. Our first project.
My mind short-circuited. “Lorraine knew my Aunt Evelyn? Before I even met Daniel?”
“Twenty-six years ago,” Margaret said quietly. “Evelyn, her younger sister Rose, Patricia, and Lorraine started a property flipping business together. Hart & Bennett. It lasted exactly one year.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“The company accounts were drained,” Margaret explained. “Nearly forty thousand dollars vanished. Lorraine produced altered bank ledgers that explicitly framed Rose for the embezzlement. Evelyn, pragmatic and rigid, believed the forged documents. She threw Rose out, cutting her out of the family entirely.”
I felt physically sick. “Evelyn turned her back on her own sister because of Lorraine?”
Margaret nodded slowly. “Yes. Rose left town in disgrace. It broke the family apart. But years later, shortly before Evelyn was diagnosed with cancer, she discovered the truth. She found the original banking carbon copies. Lorraine was the one who stole the money. She framed Rose, and she destroyed Evelyn’s family to cover her tracks.”
Tears pricked my eyes. “Why didn’t Evelyn tell the police?”
“The statute of limitations had long expired. And Evelyn was dying. She didn’t have the strength for a war. But,” Margaret added, her eyes flashing with a fierce light, “she had the strength to build a fortress. That is why the Willow Lane house was protected with the ironclad trust. Evelyn knew that if Lorraine’s son ever got his hooks into you, Lorraine would eventually try to take the house, just like she took everything else.”
Daniel was staring at the photo, his mouth open in horror. He hadn’t known. The master manipulator had been manipulated by his own mother his entire life.
My phone vibrated violently against the wood table.
It was an unread text message. I opened it.
Hello, Claire. This is Patricia Bennett. I heard what happened today. I think it is time we finally meet.
Another message popped up immediately after.
When Evelyn realized what my sister did, she gave me something for safekeeping. She told me to hold onto it until the day you finally saw the Bennetts for who they really are. I have it. Come to my apartment.
