Chapter 3 - The Night at Honey & Rye
Mara excused herself and called her mother.
Rebecca answered on the second ring.
“Are you having a good time?”
“Mom, I need you to tell me something.”
Rebecca's tone changed.
“What happened?”
“Someone left me a note about the night Honey & Rye almost burned down.”
Silence.
Then her mother whispered, “Where are you?”
“At the reunion.”
“Come home.”
“Mom, what happened that night?”
Rebecca exhaled shakily.
“I should have told you years ago.”
Mara stepped away from the crowd and stood beside the school fence.
“Told me what?”
“The fire wasn't an accident.”
Mara closed her eyes.
She remembered the winter night vividly.
She had been twelve. She and her mother had gone home after closing, only to receive a call from a neighbor saying smoke was coming from the bakery.
By the time they arrived, firefighters had already extinguished the flames.
The damage was concentrated in the back storage room, near the refrigeration equipment.
Investigators had blamed faulty wiring.
Insurance paid for part of the repairs, but the claim was disputed for months. Rebecca borrowed money from relatives, worked double shifts, and nearly lost the business.
Mara remembered standing outside the bakery while her mother stared at the blackened windows.
She remembered promising herself that she would find a way to protect small businesses from disasters they couldn't afford.
“Who started the fire?” Mara asked.
“I don't know for certain.”
“But you suspect someone.”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Your father.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
Mara hadn't seen her father, Daniel Bennett, since she was sixteen. He had left the family years earlier, returned briefly when the bakery was struggling, then disappeared again after an argument with Rebecca.
He died in a car accident when Mara was sixteen.
At least, that was what her mother had told her.
“Why would Dad set fire to the bakery?”
“He had debts. Serious ones. He wanted me to sell the business and use the money to pay them. I refused.”
“You never told me.”
“You were a child.”
“I'm not a child anymore.”
“I know.”
Rebecca's voice trembled.
“After the fire, your father came to me. He said he hadn't meant for it to spread. He said he only wanted to scare me into selling. I told him to leave and never come back.”
Mara gripped the phone.
“Did you tell the police?”
“I tried. But the investigator said there wasn't enough evidence. Your father claimed he had been nowhere near the bakery.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
Mara looked at the note again.
Ask your mother what happened the night the bakery almost burned down.
“Who would send me this now?”
“I don't know.”
“Was there anyone else involved?”
Rebecca was quiet for so long that Mara feared the call had dropped.
Then she said, “There was a man who came to the bakery a few days before the fire. He spoke to your father in the parking lot. I didn't know his name, but I remember his car.”
“What did it look like?”
“A black sedan. There was a silver emblem on the hood. I remember because your father seemed frightened of him.”
Mara thought about the note.
“Mom, I need you to send me every document you have from that time. The insurance claim, the police report, everything.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wants me to know the truth.”
Rebecca began crying softly.
“I wanted to protect you.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“I know. But I can't protect myself from something I don't understand.”
After they hung up, Mara returned to the reunion.
The music had grown louder. People were dancing beneath the canopy, and Derek was telling a group of classmates about the expansion plans for his newest fitness center.
Selena saw Mara approaching.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“You look upset.”
“I'm fine.”
Selena studied her.
For once, there was no mockery in her expression.
“Did something happen?”
Mara looked at her carefully.
“Someone left me a note.”
Selena's face changed.
“What did it say?”
Mara didn't answer.
Instead, she asked, “Did you know my father?”
“Not really. I think I met him once.”
“Did he ever speak to your father?”
Selena frowned.
“My father? Why?”
Mara was about to explain when Derek approached.
“Hey, Bennett. We have a little surprise planned for the class.”
He pointed toward a table where a large screen had been set up.
“Remember the senior-year superlatives? We're doing a nostalgic slideshow.”
Mara's stomach tightened.
“What kind of slideshow?”
Derek grinned.
“Nothing serious. Just old pictures.”
Selena looked away.
Mara suddenly understood.
The helicopter had not ended their plan to humiliate her.
It had only changed the shape of it.
“Go ahead,” Mara said.
Derek blinked.
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
The lights dimmed.
Photographs appeared on the screen: prom, graduation, football games, classroom pictures.
Then came an old photograph of Mara at sixteen, standing beside her homemade ColdGuard prototype.
Someone had added a caption.
MOST LIKELY TO INVENT A BETTER THERMOMETER THAN HERSELF.
Several people laughed nervously.
Derek held a microphone.
“Come on, it's funny! We all remember ColdGuard.”
Mara watched the photograph for a moment.
Then she walked toward the screen.
“Can you put the next slide up?” she asked.
Derek hesitated.
“What?”
“The next slide.”
He clicked the remote.
The screen changed.
It displayed a photograph of Honey & Rye after the fire, its back windows blackened by smoke.
A hush spread across the field.
Mara had not supplied that image.
Someone else had inserted it.
Beneath the photograph were three words.
SHE KNOWS NOTHING.
Mara looked at Derek.
He looked genuinely confused.
Then the screen went black.
A final message appeared.
ASK WHO PAID FOR THE FIRE.
Mara's hands went cold.
May you like
Because she had never told anyone at school about the suspicious visitor.
And whoever had created that slideshow knew exactly what she had just learned.
