Chapter 18 - The Things They Thought Were Gone
It was Clara. The shop's security footage showed her placing the ruby pendant and two other pieces on the counter, with Beck beside her. He'd claimed to be helping settle a family estate. The records included his license number because he'd signed the transaction form.
"The store kept the pieces it hadn't resold," Cole told me. "We can document their return after the investigation allows it."
Clara's story changed as the evidence grew. First she said Nina had gifted the jewelry to her. Then she said she was holding it for me. Finally she said she sold it because Thomas was desperate and Emily wouldn't help.
The financial investigator found that the money Dad thought Clara used to protect his business had partly paid Beck's consulting fees and partly gone into an account in Clara's name. Beck had prepared draft documents to replace the independent trustee and give Clara control over any proceeds. He'd used a copied image of my signature from an old college financial-aid form that had been stored among Dad's tax files.
He hadn't managed to transfer the property. The closing company's compliance review and June's objections had stopped it. But the false documents and attempt to get them accepted were real.
Dad called that evening. "Clara wants me to pay for her lawyer."
"What are you going to do?"
"Tell her she needs to make her own decisions and face what follows."
It was a sentence he should have learned decades earlier.
The investigator also reviewed the camera file of Dad pushing me. Cole explained that the district attorney would decide how to handle the assault allegation. I gave my statement without changing it to make Dad look better. I hated the look on his face when he understood, and I hated that part of me still wanted to protect him.
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A week later, June called with a different kind of news. The trust's independent trustee had asked whether I wanted to seek an end to Dad's right to use Foxglove Point because of the attempted sale.
For the first time, the next choice belonged to me.
