Dad remained motionless after reading the DNA report.<\/p>\n
The paper trembled between his fingers. He kept staring at the number 99.98 percent as though looking at it long enough might somehow change the result.<\/p>\n
I had seen my father angry before. I had seen him furious enough to put his fist through a garage door when Mom\u2019s car was stolen. I had seen him cry when she died. But I had never seen him look betrayed in quite this way.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer carefully took the report from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Cole, I know this is a lot to absorb.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad gave a dry laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI raised that boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI taught him to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI paid for his college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad's voice cracked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all those years, Harold was standing there knowing he was Grant\u2019s father.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had no answer.<\/p>\n
The worst part was that Grant had never been a stranger to Dad. He had been family. He had eaten at our table, slept under our roof, borrowed Dad\u2019s tools, asked him for money, and called him when his car broke down.<\/p>\n
Dad had loved him without reservation.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer placed the report back inside the evidence envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still need to establish what happened legally. The DNA result gives us motive, but it doesn't by itself prove what happened to your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d Dad said.<\/p>\n
He looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was what mattered to him.<\/p>\n
Mom had discovered the truth shortly before she died. She had found the money missing, uncovered the altered prescription, hired a private investigator, and learned that the man Dad trusted most had been secretly involved with his wife years earlier.<\/p>\n
Then she had put the evidence somewhere Vanessa and Grant could not find it.<\/p>\n
She had chosen me.<\/p>\n
I couldn't stop thinking about that.<\/p>\n
The blue music box had been sitting in my home for three years.<\/p>\n
I had dusted it twice.<\/p>\n
I had moved it from one shelf to another.<\/p>\n
I had never opened the bottom.<\/p>\n
If Harold had arrived even a day earlier, everything might have disappeared.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer\u2019s phone rang.<\/p>\n
She listened for several seconds before saying, \u201cBring her in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cVanessa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked to speak?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe's asking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't have to see her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't want to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad stared at the evidence box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen let her talk to me through the glass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, Vanessa entered the interview room.<\/p>\n
She looked nothing like the confident woman who had called me at 6:30 that morning and announced Dad\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Her hair was pulled back carelessly. Her makeup had faded around her eyes. She kept rubbing her thumb against the side of her index finger, a nervous habit I remembered from childhood.<\/p>\n
She sat down.<\/p>\n
Dad watched from the adjoining room.<\/p>\n
I stood beside him.<\/p>\n
Vanessa noticed us through the glass.<\/p>\n
Her mouth opened.<\/p>\n
She began crying.<\/p>\n
Dad didn't move.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer entered the room and placed a recorder on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou asked to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa wiped her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't know about the DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
She continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI swear I didn't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer said, \u201cStart at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrant found out about the money first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe withdrawals from Dad's accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
I watched Dad\u2019s jaw tighten.<\/p>\n
Vanessa continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said Harold told him Dad wouldn't notice. Grant thought it was easy. Dad had so many accounts, and after Mom died, he wasn't checking everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn't explain the power of attorney,\u201d the sheriff said.<\/p>\n
Vanessa looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI changed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad opened his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou forged it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word was barely audible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Grant told me we were already trapped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had debts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cTry again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than two hundred thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad whispered something I couldn't hear.<\/p>\n
Vanessa continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe borrowed money from people he shouldn't have. Then he used Dad's accounts to cover the payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Harold?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa looked toward the glass.<\/p>\n
Her face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout Grant being his biological son?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad turned away.<\/p>\n
Vanessa began crying again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't know until last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom knew much earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad stepped toward the door.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer stopped him with one hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet her finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa pressed her palms against her knees.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom confronted Harold before she died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she found the old letters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat letters?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLetters between Mom and Harold.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
Vanessa continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had been seeing each other before Mom married Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad's face went completely blank.<\/p>\n
I felt sick.<\/p>\n
Vanessa whispered, \u201cGrant was born before Mom and Dad married.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked at me.<\/p>\n
I could see the question forming before he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did she never tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened after Eleanor found out Harold was still involved?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom threatened to tell Dad everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Harold?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe begged her not to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Grant know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa wiped her nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat changed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrant found the letters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a month before Mom died.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of the red folder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe folder contained them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked toward the evidence table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did Harold want the music box?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Mom told him the final copy was hidden there.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn't he destroy it when Mom first died?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa's expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he didn't know where it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Mom tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said Natalie had it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence landed heavily.<\/p>\n
Mom had deliberately made Harold believe I possessed the evidence.<\/p>\n
And she had been right.<\/p>\n
Vanessa's voice dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe also told him there were three copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found one in the bank box.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are the others?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Vanessa shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou expect us to believe that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad finally spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou lied to me for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa began crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me she died of natural causes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou let me believe Natalie abandoned me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou stole from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put me in that facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa's eyes lifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Grant would hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou helped him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her shoulders collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer ended the interview.<\/p>\n
As Vanessa was taken away, Dad remained in the hallway.<\/p>\n
He looked exhausted.<\/p>\n
I touched his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to see the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
We returned that afternoon.<\/p>\n
The white house looked exactly as it had for years.<\/p>\n
The porch still leaned toward the garden.<\/p>\n
The kitchen cabinet still refused to stay shut.<\/p>\n
The old wind chime Mom had bought at a roadside market still hung beside the back door.<\/p>\n
Dad stopped at the threshold.<\/p>\n
He breathed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mother used to bake bread here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
He walked through the kitchen slowly.<\/p>\n
Every object seemed to carry a memory.<\/p>\n
Then he stopped at the wall beside the pantry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
He touched a faint mark in the paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your mother was alive, there was a picture here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich picture?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one of you and me at the lake.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered it.<\/p>\n
Mom had framed it after my high-school graduation.<\/p>\n
Dad removed the frame.<\/p>\n
Behind it was a narrow wooden panel.<\/p>\n
He stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI've never seen this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pressed his thumb against the edge.<\/p>\n
The panel opened.<\/p>\n
Inside was a shallow compartment.<\/p>\n
There was nothing there except a folded napkin.<\/p>\n
Dad looked disappointed.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed a small indentation in the wood.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
He moved closer.<\/p>\n
The indentation was shaped like a key.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Mercer called from behind us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
She held up a sealed evidence bag.<\/p>\n
Inside was a small brass key.<\/p>\n
The same kind Harold had carried.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d Dad asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hidden beneath the lining of Harold's coat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked at the compartment.<\/p>\n
Then at the key.<\/p>\n
He inserted it.<\/p>\n
The lock clicked.<\/p>\n
A thin metal drawer slid outward.<\/p>\n
Inside was a second envelope.<\/p>\n
Dad took it carefully.<\/p>\n
On the front, Mom had written:<\/p>\n
For Natalie. Only after your father knows the truth.<\/p>\n
My hands went cold.<\/p>\n
Dad looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou open it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I broke the seal.<\/p>\n
Inside was a single photograph.<\/p>\n
It showed Mom standing beside Harold.<\/p>\n
They were young.<\/p>\n
Very young.<\/p>\n
On the back, Mom had written one sentence.<\/p>\n
This is where everything began.<\/p>\n
Beneath the photograph was another piece of paper.<\/p>\n
It contained an address.<\/p>\n
And underneath that address were four words that changed what we thought we knew about Grant.<\/p>\n
He isn't the only one.<\/p>\n
Dad remained motionless after reading the DNA report. The paper trembled between his fingers. He kept staring at the number 99.98 percent as though looking at it long enough might … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6637,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions\/6637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}