Chapter 3 - The Family Secret
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Derek was still connected on speaker.
Vanessa kept refreshing the screen as if the missing money might somehow reappear.
“How much was there?” I asked.
She swallowed.
“About seventy-three thousand.”
My stomach dropped.
“Seventy-three?”
“It included two harvest payments.”
“Where did it go?”
She tapped frantically.
Then she stopped.
“There were transfers.”
“To whom?”
Her face changed.
“I don’t recognize the account.”
Derek cursed through the phone.
“I knew it.”
I grabbed the phone.
“Knew what?”
“Someone has access.”
“To Vanessa’s account?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did you tell her to check it?”
Derek was silent.
I felt anger return.
“No more half-truths.”
“Marcus—”
“No.”
I spoke slowly.
“You have sixty thousand dollars of my household’s money. Vanessa’s business account has been emptied. You claim someone has something on you.”
I looked at my wife.
“And I’m done being the only person in this family who doesn’t know what is happening.”
Derek exhaled.
“Come to Mom’s house.”
Vanessa whispered, “Derek, no.”
“What’s at your mother’s house?” I asked.
“Answers.”
The call ended.
Vanessa immediately shook her head.
“We’re not going.”
I stared at her.
“You were shouting about a Toyota forty minutes ago.”
“This has nothing to do with that.”
“Apparently nothing ever does.”
She grabbed my arm.
“Marcus, please.”
I looked at her hand until she released me.
“What are you afraid I’ll find out?”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“I don’t know what Derek plans to tell you.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She looked away.
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“You already know part of it.”
She said nothing.
I took my car keys.
“We’re going.”
Caleb couldn’t come with us.
I called my sister, Angela, and asked if he could spend the night.
Vanessa protested.
“You’re involving your family now?”
I turned toward her.
“No. I’m making sure our son isn’t sitting upstairs listening while his parents discover what secrets your family has been keeping.”
That ended the argument.
An hour later, we pulled into her mother’s driveway.
Derek’s car was already there.
So was another vehicle I recognized.
Vanessa’s mother, Cynthia, opened the door before we knocked.
She looked exhausted.
“Marcus.”
“Cynthia.”
Her eyes went to Vanessa.
“You told him?”
Vanessa whispered, “Not everything.”
I laughed once.
“Wonderful.”
Cynthia closed her eyes.
“Come inside.”
Derek sat at the dining table.
His face looked terrible.
There was a bruise near his left eye.
Vanessa gasped.
“What happened?”
“Sit down.”
She rushed toward him.
“Who did that?”
“Vanessa, sit.”
I remained standing.
“Start talking.”
Cynthia frowned.
“Marcus, this concerns our family.”
I stared at her.
“Your daughter took money from our joint account to handle it.”
I pointed toward myself.
“That made it my concern.”
Nobody argued.
Derek rubbed both hands over his face.
“Three months ago, I got a call from someone named Raymond Vale.”
“Who is that?”
“A private lender.”
“What did you borrow?”
“Nothing.”
I frowned.
“Then why is he calling you?”
Derek looked at Cynthia.
She lowered her eyes.
Something passed between them.
“Derek.”
He finally spoke.
“Dad borrowed from him.”
Vanessa went rigid.
Her father, Leonard, had died six years earlier.
I had respected him.
He had been charming, intelligent, and forever starting new ventures.
“What kind of debt?”
Derek pushed a folder toward me.
Inside were copies of loan agreements.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
My jaw tightened.
“This is almost three hundred thousand dollars.”
Cynthia began crying.
“He told me it was less.”
I looked at the signature.
Leonard Coleman.
Then I noticed something else.
Collateral.
A parcel of land.
I looked at Vanessa.
Her face had gone white.
I read the address again.
The parcel was the same land I had purchased for Vanessa.
“That’s impossible.”
I pointed at the document.
“That land wasn’t Leonard’s.”
Derek nodded.
“I know.”
“He died before I even bought it.”
“I know.”
“Then what is this?”
Cynthia whispered, “A forgery.”
The room went silent.
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Leonard had debts before he died. A lot of them.”
Vanessa sat down.
“Mom.”
Cynthia’s voice shook.
“He used family property as collateral sometimes.”
“Property he owned?”
She didn’t answer.
I felt sick.
Derek said, “Raymond claims Dad promised him another parcel if the debt wasn’t repaid.”
“The parcel I later bought?”
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It was originally owned by Uncle Peter.”
Vanessa whispered, “Before Marcus bought it.”
Derek nodded.
“And Dad apparently forged Peter’s signature years ago.”
I stared at all three of them.
“How does any of this explain Vanessa’s missing money?”
Derek pushed another page toward me.
“Because Raymond doesn’t care that the documents are fraudulent.”
“He can’t enforce forged documents.”
“He knows.”
“Then why pay him?”
Derek looked directly at me.
“Because he has evidence Dad committed fraud against several people.”
I stared at him.
“Your father is dead.”
“He also has recordings.”
“Of what?”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
“Mom helping him.”
Vanessa gasped.
Cynthia began sobbing.
I looked at my mother-in-law.
“You knew?”
“Not everything.”
“Everyone in this family says that.”
“I signed things Leonard put in front of me.”
“What things?”
“Documents.”
“Fraudulent documents?”
“I didn’t know!”
Derek slammed his hand against the table.
“You knew enough!”
Cynthia flinched.
Vanessa shouted, “Don’t speak to Mom like that.”
Derek laughed bitterly.
“This is exactly why we’re here.”
He pointed at Vanessa.
“You keep protecting everyone.”
“She’s our mother.”
“And you used Marcus’s money to protect me!”
Vanessa froze.
I looked at her.
Derek continued.
“You shouldn’t have sent it.”
“You begged me!”
“Because I was scared!”
“And I’m your sister!”
“That doesn’t make it right!”
For once, Derek sounded like the most reasonable person in the room.
I picked up the loan papers.
“Who emptied Vanessa’s plantation account?”
Derek went quiet.
“Raymond.”
“How?”
“Vanessa gave him access.”
I slowly turned toward my wife.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Derek stared at her.
“You gave him the account details when you made the last payment.”
“I gave him transfer information.”
“And apparently enough to get the rest.”
I felt my pulse pounding.
“Why would you send money directly to someone blackmailing your family?”
Vanessa stood.
“Because Derek said if we didn’t pay, everything would come out!”
“What exactly is ‘everything’?”
Silence.
Derek looked at Cynthia.
Cynthia looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa looked at the floor.
I slammed the folder onto the table.
“Enough!”
Everyone jumped.
“Tell me what you’re hiding.”
Cynthia began to cry harder.
Vanessa whispered, “Mom…”
“No,” I said. “Let her speak.”
Cynthia looked at me.
Then she said something that made every other problem disappear.
“Leonard didn’t only forge Peter’s signature.”
My stomach tightened.
“Whose else?”
May you like
She looked directly at me.
“Your father’s.”
