Chapter 7 - The Letter I Was Never Supposed to Read
The next morning, Grandpa took us to Harrison Development headquarters.
He did not want Mom alone at the house.
Mom did not want Rosie and me with strangers.
So all of us went.
The building was forty stories of glass and steel.
People stood straighter when Grandpa walked past.
I noticed something else too.
They stared at Mom.
Some recognized her.
Whispers followed us into the elevator.
“That’s Sarah Harrison.”
“I thought she was dead.”
“Are those her kids?”
Mom heard.
She kept her chin up.
On the thirty-eighth floor, Grandpa’s attorney, Naomi Price, met us.
She was carrying three folders.
“We have a problem.”
Grandpa gave her a tired look.
“Only one?”
Naomi ignored the joke.
“Victor filed emergency papers last night.”
Mom frowned.
“For what?”
“To challenge Sarah’s status as a beneficiary.”
Grandpa stared at her.
“On what basis?”
Naomi placed a document on the table.
“Abandonment.”
Mom laughed bitterly.
“He drove me away and now he’s using the fact that I was gone?”
“There’s more.”
Naomi hesitated.
Then slid another paper across the table.
A signature appeared at the bottom.
SARAH E. HARRISON.
Mom looked at it.
“That’s not mine.”
Naomi nodded.
“It supposedly relinquishes your interest in the family trust.”
“When was it signed?”
“Twelve years ago.”
Mom’s hands started shaking.
“Right after I left.”
Grandpa read the paper.
“Who witnessed it?”
Naomi pointed.
“Victor Harrison.”
Grandpa almost smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
Because Victor had made a mistake.
“He forged it himself.”
Naomi nodded.
“Looks that way.”
Then she handed Mom an envelope.
“This was attached.”
Mom opened it.
A letter.
She read the first sentence and stopped breathing.
“What?” I asked.
She folded it.
“Nothing.”
“Mom.”
“Caleb.”
“What?”
She looked toward Rosie.
“Not here.”
I knew that tone.
Something bad.
Later, while Mom was meeting with Naomi, the envelope sat on the conference table.
I did something I am not proud of.
I read it.
The letter was supposedly from Mom.
Dad,
I know what I am doing.
Dean loves me more than you ever did.
I do not want the Harrison name or money.
If I have children, they will never know you.
Do not search for me.
Sarah.
My chest burned.
Even though I knew it was fake, reading it hurt.
I imagined Grandpa receiving it.
Believing it.
Maybe that was why he eventually stopped searching.
“Caleb.”
I spun around.
Grandpa stood behind me.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at the letter.
“You read it?”
I nodded.
He pulled out a chair.
“Sit.”
I did.
“Did you believe that?”
I asked.
His eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“You really stopped looking?”
He took a long breath.
“After five years.”
Five years sounded like forever.
“I thought she hated me.”
“She didn’t.”
“I know.”
“You should’ve kept looking.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
That answer made me angrier.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Pride.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
“You’re rich. You had people. Detectives.”
“Yes.”
“You could’ve found us.”
His voice broke.
“Maybe.”
I stood.
“We lived in cars.”
He closed his eyes.
“Caleb—”
“Rosie slept in a laundromat once because Dad threw us out.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
My voice was rising.
“Mom worked two jobs when Dad disappeared for weeks. I stole crackers from school because we didn’t have dinner.”
Tears ran down my face.
“And you were here!”
Grandpa did not defend himself.
That made me even angrier.
“You were in this building!”
“Yes.”
“With all this money!”
“Yes.”
“And Mom thought you hated her.”
He looked at me.
“I failed her.”
The anger inside me suddenly cracked.
Grandpa’s eyes were wet.
“I let one cruel letter confirm the worst thing I already believed.”
“What?”
“That she would be happier without me.”
I wiped my face.
“She wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“You failed us too.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
I had expected him to argue.
Adults always argued.
Dean always did.
Grandpa did not.
He simply sat there and accepted it.
“I cannot change those years,” he said. “But I can spend every year I have left proving I understand what they cost you.”
I did not forgive him that second.
But I believed him.
Then the conference room door opened.
Naomi entered quickly.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“We found the ledgers.”
Grandpa stood.
“Where?”
“Victor didn’t destroy them.”
Mom came in behind her.
“He transferred them.”
“To whom?” Grandpa asked.
Naomi looked at Mom.
“To Dean.”
My stomach dropped.
Dean was in custody.
Grandpa frowned.
“Why give them to Dean?”
“Insurance.”
Mom understood first.
“Victor knew Dean could use them to negotiate.”
Naomi nodded.
“Dean’s attorney just offered a full handover.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Protection from Victor.”
Grandpa stared.
Naomi continued.
“Dean claims Victor threatened him last night.”
“How?”
“He had someone deliver a message to the jail.”
Mom went pale.
“What message?”
Naomi read from her notes.
“Keep quiet, or Sarah loses another child.”
Everything inside the room stopped.
Grandpa’s chair scraped backward.
Mom grabbed my arm.
Rosie was in the next room with Mrs. Bell.
I could barely breathe.
Detective Ortiz arrived ten minutes later.
Security doubled around us.
Victor was now being sought for questioning.
No one knew where he was.
Then my phone buzzed.
I had an old prepaid phone Mom had bought for emergencies.
Unknown number.
I opened the message.
There were only seven words.
YOUR GRANDFATHER CANNOT PROTECT YOU FROM EVERYTHING.
Attached was a photograph.
May you like
Taken that morning.
It showed me entering the Harrison building.
