Chapter 15
Three days later, Raymond Pike disappeared.
Not dramatically.
Not in the middle of the night with police chasing him.
He simply stopped answering calls.
His office was locked.
His employees claimed they had been told to work remotely.
His dark SUV was gone.
And Lauren received a single text.
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT YOUR HANDS OFF MY FILES.
She forwarded it to police.
Suddenly the investigation widened.
I hated that word too.
Investigation.
It sounded clinical.
My life did not feel clinical.
It felt like waking every morning and remembering my husband had a baby coming with my sister.
It felt like checking the locks twice.
It felt like Emma asking whether I would still be there when she woke up.
It felt like receiving bank alerts and flinching.
Rebecca helped me obtain temporary exclusive use of the house.
Michael agreed to move out rather than fight the request.
That surprised me.
When I returned home with Emma, he had already packed most of his clothes.
The family photographs were still on the walls.
I took down our wedding picture.
Emma watched.
“Are you throwing it away?”
“No.”
I placed it in a box.
“I’m just not looking at it every day.”
She nodded.
Then she carried a framed photo of the three of us from a Wisconsin vacation.
“What about this one?”
My chest tightened.
“You can keep any picture you want.”
She studied Michael’s smiling face.
“I don’t know if I’m mad at him.”
“You don’t have to know yet.”
She put it on her dresser.
That night was our first night home alone.
I thought I would be scared.
Instead I slept better than I had in months.
The next morning, Claire called.
“Noah wants to meet you.”
I froze.
“Why?”
“He knows about the divorce.”
“How?”
“Michael called him.”
That surprised me.
“What did Michael say?”
“That he made serious mistakes.”
I sat at the kitchen table.
“He admitted it?”
“To Noah, yes.”
“Why?”
“I think he finally realized his lies are reaching the children.”
I wasn’t ready to praise him for basic decency.
“What does Noah want from me?”
“He has questions.”
“He’s twelve.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to drag him into this.”
“Neither do I.”
Claire paused.
“But he knows Emma exists.”
My heart tightened.
“Did he always?”
“For two years.”
“What?”
“Diane showed him pictures.”
Of course she had.
Diane kept two grandchildren—or nearly grandchildren, in Emma’s case—in separate worlds and controlled the information between them.
“What did she tell him?”
“That Michael’s new family didn’t know about him.”
I closed my eyes.
“That’s horrible.”
“Yes.”
“Does he think I wanted that?”
“I don’t know.”
That decided it.
We met at a park.
Public.
Simple.
Emma came because Claire and I agreed secrets between children had caused enough damage.
Noah was tall for twelve.
Quiet.
He looked like Michael around the eyes.
When Emma saw him, she stopped walking.
“Are you Michael’s son?”
Noah nodded.
“You’re Emma?”
She nodded too.
Then, in the strange direct way children sometimes survive adult chaos, Emma asked, “Did he make you keep secrets too?”
Noah looked at Claire.
Then back at Emma.
“Yes.”
Emma walked closer.
“Me too.”
My throat tightened.
Noah sat on a bench.
Emma sat beside him.
Claire and I stayed nearby.
For ten minutes, they compared stories.
Michael visiting Noah only occasionally.
Diane bringing gifts.
Emma seeing Lauren on Thursdays.
Noah being told never to contact us.
Then Noah looked at me.
“Did you know about me?”
“No.”
“Would you have been mad if Michael saw me?”
The question hurt.
“No.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He looked at his mother.
Claire turned away to hide tears.
“I would have wanted him to be a good father to you.”
Noah stared at the ground.
“He said you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m sorry he said that.”
“He says sorry a lot now.”
Emma nodded wisely.
“He does.”
For the first time in days, I laughed.
So did Claire.
Noah almost smiled.
Before we left, he handed me something.
A folded piece of paper.
“Grandma gave this to me last month.”
I opened it.
It was a photocopy of one page from Richard’s ledger.
Next to my father’s name, Richard had written:
Thomas release original stored with D. until Pike debt cleared.
I stared.
“With D.”
Claire looked over my shoulder.
“Diane.”
My heart raced.
Diane had possessed the original release.
She had entered my house.
Now it was missing.
I called Rebecca.
We arranged a meeting with investigators.
Diane was questioned again.
This time, confronted with the ledger note, she admitted Richard had given her the release.
She claimed she returned it to my father.
Impossible.
Dad died first.
Then she changed the story again.
She had kept it.
Then lost it.
Then maybe given it to Raymond.
Finally she broke.
According to the investigator, Diane put her head in her hands and said, “I gave it to Michael.”
My chest tightened when Rebecca told me.
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
I stared at the wall.
Michael had sworn he didn’t have it.
Maybe he no longer did.
But he had.
I called him.
“Did Diane give you my father’s original release?”
Silence.
“Michael.”
“Yes.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“You lied to me.”
“I panicked.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to Raymond.”
My eyes closed.
“Why?”
“He said he needed to verify it.”
“You handed away the document protecting my property?”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“Then why lie?”
His answer came quietly.
“Because after everything else, I knew you’d never believe I was that stupid.”
I stared at nothing.
He was right.
I didn’t.
Then he whispered, “Sarah, there’s something you need to know about the original.”
“What?”
“Before I gave it to Raymond, I scanned it.”
I stopped breathing.
“Where is the scan?”
“In an email account nobody else knows about.”
“Send it to Rebecca.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
Ten minutes later, Rebecca called.
“I have it.”
“Does it help?”
“It does more than help.”
I gripped the phone.
“What do you mean?”
“The release was notarized and recorded with a reference number.”
My heart pounded.
“So?”
“So even if Raymond destroyed the original, the county may have an official recorded copy.”
May you like
For the first time since Sunday dinner, something inside me loosened.
My father had protected me better than any of them realized.
