Chapter 6 - The Garage
I caught up to Melissa in the garage.
Not because I wanted to stop her physically.
Because she was heading toward the filing cabinet beside our old freezer.
She yanked open the bottom drawer.
Empty.
"What were you looking for?"
She turned.
"Nothing."
I stepped closer.
"Then why are your hands shaking?"
She stared at me.
She whispered, "You don't know what your mother did."
"To whom?"
"To Grant."
I frowned.
"Grant was eighteen when your father's company collapsed."
"What does that have to do with my mother?"
Melissa laughed bitterly.
"Everything."
She said her family had invested nearly two million dollars in Bennett Tool & Die.
When the company failed, her father lost his home and eventually died after years of debt.
"Your mother protected her own money while everyone else burned," Melissa said.
"So you starved a child?"
"I did not starve him."
"You denied him food."
"It was one meal."
"No. It wasn't."
Her eyes flicked away.
That was enough.
I opened the garage security cabinet.
A red light blinked.
Someone was trying to access the system remotely.
I killed the network.
Then I heard a metal bang behind the garage door.
David shouted from inside the house.
"Jack!"
I opened the side door.
Grant stood in the driveway beside his SUV.
In his hand was the blue leather notebook Owen had mentioned.
"Give me that."
Grant backed away.
"This belonged to Evelyn."
"It belongs to my family."
"Your family took mine apart."
I stepped forward.
Grant shoved me hard.
I hit the garage wall but stayed upright.
He ran for the SUV.
David called 911.
Grant got the door open.
I grabbed the notebook before he could climb in.
The leather tore.
Pages scattered across the driveway.
Grant stared at one loose sheet near his shoe.
Then his face changed.
He snatched it and drove away.
I picked up the remaining pages.
Most were letters.
One was a ledger.
At the bottom, my mother's handwriting said:
KELLER INVESTMENT - RETURNED IN FULL, 2009.
I looked at Melissa.
"Your family got its money back."
She stared at the page.
"No."
May you like
I held it closer.
"Then someone lied to you."
