Chapter 14 - My Father’s Confession
Aunt Lorraine opened the door but didn’t invite them inside.
“You have thirty seconds to explain why you’re standing on my porch.”
My mother’s eyes immediately found me behind Lorraine.
“Hannah.”
I felt nothing when she said my name.
That surprised me.
Months earlier, her voice could still make me feel fourteen years old.
Now it sounded like noise.
My father lifted the blue folder.
“I have something you need.”
Aunt Lorraine stepped aside just enough to let him enter.
“Richard only.”
My mother’s mouth fell open.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Evelyn.”
“That’s my husband.”
“And this is my house.”
My mother turned toward me.
“You’re going to let her talk to me like this?”
“Yes.”
It was almost satisfying how quickly the answer came.
Mom stared at me, shocked.
Dad stepped inside.
Lorraine shut the door in my mother’s face.
For several seconds, Richard just stood there.
He looked smaller than I remembered.
Not physically.
Morally.
Like all the authority he had worn for decades had finally collapsed under the weight of facts.
Rachel sat at the kitchen table.
“Mr. Brooks, I represent Hannah. Anything you say may become part of active litigation.”
Dad nodded.
“I know.”
He placed the folder down.
“I worked with Gavin Mercer.”
Aunt Lorraine let out a quiet, disgusted laugh.
“I already knew that.”
Dad looked at me.
“I didn’t know what he really was.”
“You never do.”
He flinched.
Good.
“I met him through Derek three years ago. Derek was trying to develop a distribution center near Harrisburg.”
“With what money?”
“None.”
Of course.
“Gavin said he could structure private financing. He told us he worked with distressed businesses.”
Lorraine leaned against the counter.
“He worked with desperate idiots.”
Dad ignored her.
“Derek needed cash. I had already lost access to the trust funds. I couldn’t borrow against the Wexford house because of the audit.”
“So you gave Gavin my information.”
My father looked down.
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Even Rachel stopped writing.
I stared at him.
“You gave a stranger my Social Security number?”
“He said he needed to evaluate the family’s total assets.”
“My assets weren’t yours.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now because you got caught.”
Dad’s shoulders dropped.
“I copied some documents.”
“Which documents?”
“Your old tax returns.”
My stomach turned.
“How did you have those?”
“You used our accountant years ago.”
“What else?”
“Driver’s license copy. Employment history. Trust records.”
“What else?”
He hesitated.
Rachel’s voice sharpened.
“Mr. Brooks.”
“My father’s death certificate. Probate documents. Hannah’s bank statements from the original trust account.”
Aunt Lorraine looked ready to throw him through the window.
“You handed a financial predator a complete identity theft kit.”
“I thought he was helping Derek!”
“There it is,” I said.
Dad looked at me.
“The sentence that explains my entire childhood.”
“Hannah—”
“You thought you were helping Derek.”
My voice cracked.
“So my privacy didn’t matter. My money didn’t matter. My house didn’t matter.”
“I never meant for him to use it this way.”
“You never mean anything. Somehow I just keep paying for it.”
Dad sank into a chair.
“The blue folder is everything.”
Rachel pulled it closer.
Inside were emails.
Contracts.
Copies of text messages.
And then something more important.
A handwritten ledger.
Payments from Richard to Gavin.
Twenty thousand.
Fifteen thousand.
Forty thousand.
“Where did this money come from?” Rachel asked.
Dad closed his eyes.
“My retirement account.”
“You gave Gavin seventy-five thousand dollars?”
“I thought I was buying Derek time.”
“What was Gavin threatening?”
Dad looked toward me.
“He had copies of the old forged trust papers.”
My heart skipped.
“What?”
“He found out about Hannah’s inheritance. About Harold. Everything.”
“How?”
“Derek told him.”
Aunt Lorraine muttered, “Of course he did.”
Dad rubbed his forehead.
“Gavin said if we didn’t cooperate, he would give the documents to federal investigators and make sure Evelyn and I went to prison.”
Rachel’s face remained unreadable.
“So you committed new crimes to hide old ones.”
“I panicked.”
“No,” Lorraine said. “You chose.”
Dad’s eyes filled.
Then he said the one thing that made everybody go silent.
“Gavin didn’t create the forged guarantee.”
Rachel stopped.
“What?”
Dad looked at me.
“Derek did.”
My breath left my body.
“He signed Hannah’s name?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Gavin told him he could erase the debt from the failed businesses if he produced collateral.”
I gripped the back of a chair.
“Where is Derek?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“What happened?”
Dad swallowed.
“He told me he was going to confess.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“To whom?”
“The police.”
I thought of Derek’s texts.
DON’T TRUST DAD.
THE MONEY NEVER EXISTED.
GAVIN HAS EVERYTHING.
Dad’s voice dropped.
“I told him not to.”
“Why?”
“Because Gavin said if Derek talked, he’d destroy all of us.”
Aunt Lorraine stared at him.
“Richard, where is your son?”
Dad looked terrified.
“I honestly don’t know.”
Then my phone rang.
Detective Kowalski.
I answered immediately.
“Hannah?”
“Yes.”
“We found Derek’s car.”
My knees weakened.
“Where?”
“Parking structure near the Amtrak station.”
“Was he in it?”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
May you like
Kowalski continued.
“But there was blood on the driver’s seat.”
