Chapter 6
Brenda’s attorney sent a revised offer the next day.
This time, she would repay Leo without asking us to change our statements. Evelyn said we could arrange that separately from the investigation, and she made sure the agreement did not speak for Leo or excuse the application.
I told Brenda through Evelyn that the money belonged to Leo. Every dollar.
Brenda sent the first payment that Friday.
Leo saw it in his account and stared at his phone.
“It’s actually there.”
“It is.”
“Does this mean I have to talk to her?”
“No. The repayment isn’t a reward for seeing her.”
He put the phone down.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever want to.”
“You can decide that later.”
At school, Leo’s grades had slipped. His English teacher called because he had fallen asleep in class twice.
I told her there was a serious family problem and asked about support. She helped him arrange extra time for one assignment and introduced him to the school counselor.
Leo came home from his first appointment looking annoyed.
“She asked how I felt.”
“That sounds like a counselor.”
“I told her I was tired of everyone asking.”
I nodded. “Fair.”
He hesitated. “Then I told her I missed how things used to be.”
I set down the dish I was washing.
“Do you?”
“Parts of it. Brenda used to make pancakes when I had games. She knew which teachers I liked. I’m mad at her, and I still remember that.”
“You don’t have to erase good memories to tell the truth about what happened.”
He looked relieved.
That evening, Detective Ramos called. Investigators had located the man calling himself Victor Hale in another state. He had contacted several families using similar stories. They wanted Brenda to identify the messages and payment instructions in person.
“She’s cooperating?” I asked.
“Yes.”
After the call, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table where Leo had admitted paying rent. The place felt changed. Brenda’s chair was empty. I had packed away her things from the shared rooms, but I still heard her voice sometimes when I opened a cupboard.
Maya arrived with takeout and found me there.
“You need to eat,” she said.
“I keep thinking about every sign I missed.”
“You worked. You came home. You asked Leo how his day went. Brenda told both of you a story designed to keep you apart.”
“I should have talked to him alone more often.”
“Then do that now.”
I knew she was right. I also needed to let myself feel how close I had come to failing him.
Later that week, Leo asked to return to the diner for one Saturday afternoon shift. His manager had spoken with Ramos and agreed to call if the man appeared again. Maya offered to pick Leo up.
I worried through the whole shift.
When he came out, he was carrying a slice of pie in a box.
“The cook said I’ve been missed,” he told me.
On the drive home, he talked about a customer who had tried to order breakfast after the kitchen closed. His voice sounded like his own again.
Then he fell quiet.
“Dad, do you think Brenda believed the inheritance was real?”
“At first, yes.”
“What about when she made me sign?”
“I don’t know what she believed then. She knew she was hiding it from us.”
“That’s what bothers me.”
“It bothers me too.”
The next morning, a letter arrived addressed to Leo. Brenda had written it by hand. I placed it on the table and told him it was his choice whether to open it.
He did.
He read it once, then put it down.
“She says she’s sorry she scared me. She says she’ll keep paying.”
“What else?”
“She wants me to know the years before this were real.”
He folded the letter along its original creases.
“Were they?”
“I can’t answer for every moment she had with you.”
“I know she cared sometimes.”
“You can believe that and still hold her responsible.”
He slipped the letter back into its envelope.
“I’m going to keep it. I don’t want to answer.”
“That’s okay.”
In the afternoon, Evelyn called with news. Victor had been taken into custody, and investigators were gathering statements from the families he had approached.
I told Leo.
He stood very still.
“Can he come to the diner again?”
“Not now.”
He let out a breath I hadn’t known he was holding.
Then Evelyn told me Brenda had given a new statement. She had admitted that after Victor proposed the loan, she understood it would use Leo’s identity.
May you like
The room seemed to tilt.
She had finally told the full truth.
