Chapter 2 - THE SECRET MY MOTHER KEPT
For several seconds, nobody moved.
I stared at my mother.
Then at Clara.
Then back at my mother.
"What does Clara have to do with my father?"
Mother's fingers tightened around the wheelchair.
"Nothing."
Clara looked relieved.
"At least," Mother continued, "not in the way you're thinking."
My patience disappeared.
"Then explain."
Mother sighed.
"Bennett, you have spent your entire life believing your father died in a boating accident."
"He did."
"That's what I told you."
The room seemed to tilt.
I remembered the day clearly.
I was nineteen.
My father, Richard Hale, had gone sailing alone.
A storm had rolled in unexpectedly.
His boat had been found two days later.
His body never was.
The Coast Guard had classified him as presumed dead.
My mother had told me he was gone.
I had believed her.
"What are you saying?"
Mother looked toward the window.
"I'm saying your father was investigating someone."
"Who?"
She didn't answer.
"Mother."
"Someone inside Hale Atlantic."
My stomach tightened.
"One of our executives?"
"Someone close enough to access everything."
I looked at Clara.
"Why her?"
Mother's eyes filled with tears.
"Because her father knew yours."
Clara finally spoke.
"My father worked for your father."
I stared at her.
"What was his name?"
"Thomas Reed."
The name meant nothing to me.
Mother nodded.
"Thomas was your father's financial investigator."
I remembered something.
An old photograph.
My father standing beside a younger man.
I'd seen it once as a child.
"Why didn't I know?"
"Because your father was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
Mother looked at Clara.
Clara answered.
"Someone was stealing from Hale Atlantic."
My mind began racing.
"How much?"
"Enough to destroy the company."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
"Then why hire Clara?"
Mother's face softened.
"I didn't."
Clara looked at me.
"I applied for the housekeeping position."
"Why?"
"Because your mother asked me to."
I turned sharply toward my mother.
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Before you told me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She looked exhausted.
"Because Thomas left something with me before he died."
Clara reached into the pocket of her uniform and removed a small envelope.
My heart stopped.
She placed it on my desk.
"This belonged to my father."
I didn't touch it.
"What's inside?"
"Something he wanted your father to have."
"Your father died how?"
Clara's expression changed.
"Car accident."
The room went silent.
"When?"
"Six years ago."
I stared at the envelope.
"How?"
"His brakes failed."
A chill moved through me.
Two deaths.
Two accidents.
Two men connected to my father.
"Why did you wait six years?"
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of whom?"
"I don't know."
"That's not an answer."
"It is the only honest one I have."
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Thomas Reed.
And a third man.
I recognized him immediately.
Martin Vale.
Hale Atlantic's former chief financial officer.
A man who had left the company eighteen years ago after a mysterious internal investigation.
My father had always told me Martin was dishonest.
But the photograph suggested something else.
All three men were smiling.
On the back of the photograph were four words.
TRUST NO ONE INSIDE.
I looked at my mother.
"Why are you showing me this now?"
She reached for my hand.
"Because I'm dying."
I hated hearing her say it.
"And I don't want to die knowing you never learned the truth."
I closed my fingers around hers.
"What truth?"
She hesitated.
"Your father didn't disappear."
I stopped breathing.
"What?"
"He survived the accident."
Clara covered her mouth.
I stood so quickly my chair struck the desk.
"Where is he?"
My mother began crying.
"I don't know."
"You said he survived."
"I saw him."
"When?"
"Three months after the accident."
My world fractured.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he made me promise."
"Why?"
"Because he believed the people who tried to kill him would come after you."
I stared at her.
"My father was alive?"
"Not anymore."
My voice dropped.
"How do you know?"
Mother looked toward Clara.
"Because Thomas found him."
I looked at Clara.
She nodded slowly.
"My father told me."
"What happened to him?"
"Your father disappeared again."
"When?"
"Three months before my father died."
My mind couldn't process it.
I walked toward the window.
Outside, the ocean stretched beneath a gray sky.
For years, I had built an empire because I thought wealth could protect me from losing people.
Now I realized I had spent my entire life protecting myself from a lie.
Then Clara spoke.
"Mr. Hale."
I turned.
She was holding another photograph.
"This is why I came here."
She placed it on my desk.
I picked it up.
It showed a younger version of my father standing beside a little girl.
The girl was perhaps seven.
I knew her.
I had seen that face in old family photographs.
My younger sister.
Lily.
Except Lily had died when she was five.
At least, that was what I'd been told.
I stared at the photograph.
My hands began shaking.
"Where did you get this?"
"My father kept it."
"That's impossible."
Clara shook her head.
"He believed your sister was alive."
I looked at my mother.
She had gone completely white.
"Mother?"
May you like
She whispered one sentence.
"I was hoping you'd never have to know."
