Chapter 9 - Teresa’s Version
Teresa agreed to speak with me at the county detention center.
Agent Bell did not recommend the meeting, but she understood why I needed it.
Evan remained unconscious.
Doctors said the lack of oxygen might have caused neurological damage. They could not tell me whether he would wake as the man I remembered.
Riley and I spent every permitted hour beside him.
During one of those hours, I noticed a faint scar near his hairline. It had not been there before he disappeared.
I wondered how many times he had been hurt while I hated him.
I also wondered whether fear excused his silence.
Love did not remove the consequences of what he had done.
I had learned that from Teresa.
The detention-center interview room was divided by thick glass.
Teresa appeared in a beige uniform. Without makeup, careful clothes, or the authority of our family home, she looked older than fifty-one.
She lifted the phone.
I did the same.
“Is Evan alive?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Will he recover?”
“We don’t know.”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Did you order Thomas Holloway to stop Elena?”
Her eyes opened.
“Baines told you that?”
“He told the FBI.”
“Baines lies whenever the truth becomes expensive.”
“Did you call Holloway?”
“Yes.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What did you say?”
“I told him Elena had the documents and planned to leave the city.”
“Why?”
“Because Baines said Silas would take Claire away from me.”
“How could he take Claire?”
“He had evidence that Claire’s father was involved in a robbery.”
I had never known Claire’s father.
Teresa said he left before Claire was born.
“Who was her father?”
“Thomas Holloway.”
The phone nearly slipped from my hand.
“Grant’s father?”
Teresa nodded.
Claire had almost married her half brother.
Nausea rose in my throat.
“Did they know?”
“No. I never told Thomas about Claire. Grant learned recently from DNA records.”
“And he still planned to marry her?”
“He no longer planned to complete the marriage. The engagement gave him access to our family and allowed him to control her.”
Every relationship had been another transaction.
“Why did Baines threaten to expose Claire’s father?”
“Thomas was married. His wife’s family controlled half the police department. If they learned about Claire, I believed they would ruin us.”
“So you told him where Elena was.”
“I thought Thomas would scare her and take the documents.”
“He hit her car.”
“I did not order that.”
“You knew dangerous men were following her.”
“I knew.”
“You took me from her arms.”
Teresa looked down.
“Elena was hysterical.”
“She was being threatened.”
“She wanted to take you and disappear without money, without a plan, without telling anyone where you were going.”
“She was protecting me.”
“I thought I was protecting both of you.”
“You locked the door.”
Tears slipped down her face.
“Yes.”
“What happened after she ran out?”
“I called Thomas. I told him which road she used.”
“And when he returned?”
“He told Baines that Elena lost control of the car.”
“Did you believe him?”
“At first.”
“When did you stop?”
“When I saw black paint on the front of his car.”
“You accepted the money anyway.”
“I had you. I had Claire. Silas said he could place you with strangers and expose Thomas as Claire’s father.”
“So you chose silence.”
“Yes.”
“For twenty-two years.”
“Yes.”
Her honesty felt more violent than another lie.
“Why did you treat me like a failure?”
Teresa pressed her palm against the glass.
“Because every time I looked at you, I saw Elena.”
“That was my fault?”
“No.”
“But you made it my punishment.”
“I was jealous of her long before you were born. Elena was smarter. Braver. People listened when she spoke. Even Thomas asked about her after we met.”
“So you spent my childhood proving I was less than Claire.”
“I didn’t plan it that way.”
“Cruelty does not become accidental because you refuse to name it.”
She began sobbing.
People in nearby booths turned toward us.
I waited.
When she calmed, I asked, “Why did you tell me to leave school?”
“Because you were studying public administration.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Elena studied the same subject.”
A chill moved through me.
“You thought I would discover the records.”
“Baines worried you might apply for an archive internship.”
“So he rejected my application.”
“Yes.”
I remembered receiving the rejection two years earlier despite being recommended by two professors.
Evan had received the contractor job instead.
That was how he found everything.
“Did Claire know Thomas was her father?”
“No.”
“She knows now?”
“The FBI told her this morning.”
I pictured Claire learning that the man she planned to marry shared her father.
Grant had known and continued touching her, kissing her, displaying her at foundation events.
It was another form of violence.
“Did you give Grant Riley’s elephant because Claire asked?”
“No. Claire didn’t know I had it.”
“Then why?”
“Grant sent me Evan’s photograph. He said he would kill him and frame you for the death unless I gave him the drive.”
“Why would I be framed?”
“He planned to put Evan’s body in your apartment with your fingerprints on the medication.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why did you go to the clinic?”
“To trade the toy.”
“You saw Evan?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked me to tell you he was sorry.”
“That’s all?”
“He said the encryption phrase was the name Michael called Elena.”
“Did you know it?”
Teresa looked at me.
“Luz.”
“Light?”
“Michael called her his light.”
The drive could now be fully opened.
“Why didn’t you tell Grant?”
“Because by then I understood he would kill everyone after he had the files.”
I leaned closer to the glass.
“Is there anything else?”
Teresa hesitated.
That hesitation had defined my life.
“Tell me now.”
“Michael survived the injection Dr. Vale gave him.”
“What?”
“Only briefly. Thomas Holloway found him unconscious near the university clinic and brought him to our house because Elena was there.”
“Michael died at your house?”
Teresa nodded.
“Elena tried to revive him. He woke for less than a minute.”
“What did he say?”
“He said his father knew.”
“Silas knew Vale injected him?”
“Yes.”
“Did Silas order it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who removed Michael’s body?”
“Baines and Vale.”
“Where was Silas?”
“In the car outside.”
He had sat outside while his son died.
“Did Michael see me?”
Teresa began crying again.
“Elena placed you beside him. He touched your face.”
My throat closed.
“He said your name. Then he told Elena to find his mother’s Bible.”
“What Bible?”
“Silas’s late wife had hidden records inside it. Michael believed she knew about the foundation accounts.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know. Silas removed everything from the family house after Michael died.”
The detention officer announced that our time was ending.
Teresa pressed closer to the glass.
“Valerie, I know I do not deserve forgiveness.”
“No.”
“But I need you to believe that I did love you.”
“I believe you loved me in whatever space remained after fear, Claire, money, and resentment.”
Her face collapsed.
“That isn’t enough,” I said. “It was never enough.”
I placed the phone down.
As I walked away, she struck the glass with her palm.
I did not turn.
At the hospital, Claire waited outside Evan’s room.
She had learned about Thomas Holloway.
“I feel dirty,” she said.
“You didn’t know.”
“Grant knew.”
“Yes.”
“He slept beside me knowing.”
Her voice cracked.
“I thought he loved me.”
“So did I.”
She looked toward Evan.
“He did love you.”
“He also left me without an explanation.”
“Because Grant threatened you.”
“He could have trusted me.”
“He was terrified.”
“So was Elena. She still tried to tell the truth.”
Claire looked down.
“Are you going to forgive him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you going to forgive me?”
“No.”
The answer seemed to surprise her.
“Not now,” I added. “Maybe not ever. But I will not spend my life trying to punish you.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Tell the complete truth. Return everything you took. Accept what happens next.”
“What if I go to prison?”
“Then you go to prison.”
She wiped her face.
“You really are Elena’s daughter.”
Before I could respond, the monitor inside Evan’s room sounded.
A nurse rushed past us.
Evan’s fingers moved.
I entered.
His eyes opened slowly.
They were unfocused at first.
Then he saw Riley in my arms.
Tears filled them.
“Girl,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
His gaze moved to me.
“Val.”
I stood beside the bed.
“You came back.”
“I tried.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to make me comfort you for that.”
“I know.”
His voice was weak, but the words were clear.
“I’m not promising forgiveness.”
“I know.”
I placed Riley beside his arm.
He touched her hand.
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
He began crying.
I did not tell him everything would be all right.
I had learned not to make promises built from hope.
Instead, I told him the truth.
“She’s safe. You’re alive. The rest will take time.”
Agent Bell entered carrying an evidence box.
“The drive has been decrypted.”
“What did you find?” I asked.
“Financial records, recordings, surveillance photographs, and a video made by Michael on the day he died.”
She placed a tablet in front of us.
Michael appeared on the screen.
For the first time, I saw my father moving.
He was sitting in a parked car.
“My name is Michael Hawthorne,” he said. “If this recording is found, my father is not the person you should fear most.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“The person controlling the scholarship accounts, the police payments, and Dr. Vale is Miriam Hawthorne.”
I looked at Dr. Cole, confused.
“Who is Miriam Hawthorne?”
Agent Bell answered.
“Silas’s wife.”
“But Michael’s mother died before him.”
“That is what the Hawthorne family announced.”
May you like
Michael continued on the video.
“My mother is alive.”
