Chapter 4 - 2009
My father did not deny it.
That frightened me more than denial would have.
"What happened in 2009?"
He lowered himself into the chair behind his desk.
"There was a fire at a Whitmore storage facility in Joliet."
I remembered the headlines vaguely. An electrical fire. One employee dead. A settlement.
"Luis Ortega," Dad said. "Maintenance supervisor. Forty-six. Two daughters."
"What does that have to do with Marcus Reed?"
Dad's eyes dropped.
"The official report said the fire started without warning. That wasn't true."
My stomach tightened.
"You knew?"
"We had received safety complaints. Repairs were delayed because we had no cash. After Luis died, Marcus found an inspector willing to rewrite part of the report."
I stepped back as if he had touched me.
"You covered up a man's death."
"I signed what they put in front of me. I told myself I was saving five thousand jobs."
"You were saving yourself."
His face folded for a second.
"Yes."
That one word hurt more than the rest.
Adrian had not only found Daniel's missing money. He had found the rot underneath our family name.
Tessa's phone buzzed.
"We found Daniel's car."
"Where?"
"Downtown garage. Abandoned."
"My laptop?"
"Gone."
A second message arrived.
Tessa frowned.
"There's more. Daniel filed something in Cook County twenty minutes ago."
She handed me the screen.
EMERGENCY PETITION FOR TEMPORARY FINANCIAL GUARDIANSHIP.
Petitioner: Daniel Cross.
Respondent: Mara Whitmore Cross.
The attached statement described me as emotionally unstable, paranoid, and dangerous to myself after a public breakdown at the family estate.
There were photographs of me inside the cage.
Not of Daniel locking me in.
Only of me screaming through the bars.
Then I saw the medical declaration attached beneath it.
My therapist's signature was at the bottom.
I whispered, "She would never sign this."
Dad leaned closer.
May you like
Tessa said, "Maybe she didn't."
Because the date on the declaration was tomorrow.
