Chapter 5 - RUBY WAKES UP
Ruby woke three days after the surgery.
Her first word was:
“Daddy.”
I cried.
I didn't care who saw.
She reached for me.
I held her carefully.
“My eye hurts.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
“Am I broken?”
I closed my eyes.
“No.”
She touched the bandage.
“The doctor said you are healing.”
She looked at me.
“Will I look funny?”
I felt my heart break.
“You'll look like Ruby.”
She smiled weakly.
“That's good.”
Then she became quiet.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Aunt Vanessa was angry because Grandma told her something.”
I froze.
“What did Grandma tell her?”
Ruby frowned.
“I don't remember.”
“Try.”
“She said…”
Ruby closed her eyes.
“Something about you.”
My stomach tightened.
“About me?”
“She said, ‘If he finds out, everything will be over.’”
I stared at my daughter.
“What will be over?”
Ruby shook her head.
“I don't know.”
But someone else did.
My mother.
Detective Brooks questioned her again.
She finally confessed.
My father had been secretly using my name to obtain loans.
He had forged documents.
He had placed my small construction business as collateral.
And if the Red Oak Group called in the debt, I would lose everything.
But there was still something missing.
Why was Ruby targeted?
The answer came from a bank statement.
My father had recently transferred $75,000 into an account belonging to a man named Caleb Grant.
Caleb was a private investigator.
He had been hired to follow me.
Why?
Because someone believed I knew something.
Something valuable.
I searched my father's office.
Inside his desk, I found an envelope addressed to me.
I opened it.
There was a photograph.
It showed my father meeting a Red Oak executive.
Behind them was a document.
At the bottom was my signature.
Except I had never signed it.
The document transferred ownership of my business.
My father had forged my signature.
But there was another signature beside mine.
Vanessa's.
I realized then that my sister wasn't simply a victim of my parents' protection.
She had become part of the scheme.
Vanessa was arrested the next morning.
Her lawyer demanded bail.
She looked at me through the courtroom.
“I never meant to hurt Ruby.”
I stared at her.
“You meant to hurt someone.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“She took my cake.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You weren't angry about cake.”
She looked away.
“You were angry because your entire life had been built around believing everyone else existed to protect you.”
Her lawyer told me to stop.
I didn't.
“And now you finally learned that they won't.”
Vanessa began crying.
For the first time, I didn't feel responsible for fixing it.
That evening, Detective Miller arrived at the hospital.
She carried a photograph.
“We found your father.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“He's alive.”
“Is he under arrest?”
“Not yet.”
She hesitated.
“He asked to speak with you.”
“Where?”
“He's in protective custody.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because he says Red Oak wants him dead.”
I thought about my father.
The man who had stolen from Ruby.
The man who had protected Vanessa.
The man who had lied to me.
Yet he was still my father.
“I'll speak to him.”
Detective Miller nodded.
“But there's something you should know.”
“What?”
“Your father says Red Oak isn't the real organization.”
I stared at her.
“What does he mean?”
She handed me a second photograph.
A man stood behind the Red Oak executive.
I recognized him.
He was someone I had seen at my parents' house many times.
Someone who had hugged Ruby.
Someone everyone trusted.
May you like
My grandfather's closest friend.
Arthur Bell.
