Chapter 12 - The Man I Used to Trust
I drove to Hart Marine Supply on a Tuesday afternoon. Dad stood in the service bay, checking a cracked outboard motor. He looked relieved when he saw me, right up until I said the word authorization.
"I didn't forge your signature," he said.
"Did you let Beck use your company email?"
"Clara handled paperwork when my bookkeeper left. She said it was easier that way."
I held out the photo of Mom's inventory. "Was it easier to let her take this too?"
He stared at the pendant. "I thought those things belonged to the family."
"Mom was family. I am family. Why does everything become yours when Clara wants it?"
One of Dad's mechanics walked into the bay and immediately turned around. The shame on Dad's face made him look briefly human, briefly reachable.
"The business is failing," he said. "I thought selling the property would save everyone."
"You don't get to save people by stealing from someone else."
He leaned against the workbench. "You have no idea what I owe."
"Then tell me."
He showed me a spreadsheet. Beyond the bank loans were payments to Briar Landing, supposedly for marketing and title work, and withdrawals to an account Clara controlled. Nearly ninety thousand dollars was gone.
"Did you ask what she did with it?"
"She said she was keeping creditors away."
I could hear how much he wanted that to be true. I asked him one last question.
"When you threw me into the yard, did you think I was dangerous? Or did you just need Clara to stop screaming?"
Dad's eyes filled. "I needed her to stop."
May you like
He reached for my hand. I moved away.
Then his office phone rang. Harlan Beck was on the line, asking why Thomas had not completed the "incapacity paperwork" for his daughter.
