Chapter 6
I wanted the letter.
More than the money.
More than the lake house.
More than seeing Dalton punished.
I wanted something from my father that I had never known existed.
“What else did he write?”
Dalton sat at Naomi’s kitchen table.
“He said he regretted trusting me with the financial side of his estate.”
“Why?”
“He noticed irregular transfers.”
My stomach tightened.
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“So Dad knew you were moving money?”
“Not everything.”
“Enough.”
Dalton nodded.
“Enough.”
I looked away.
My father had been dying.
In pain.
And still trying to protect me.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He wanted proof.”
“Did he have it?”
“Some.”
“And you?”
Dalton’s voice broke.
“I begged him not to tell you.”
I stared.
“You begged my dying father to hide your affair?”
“And the transfers.”
Naomi stood abruptly.
“I need to leave this room before I become evidence.”
She walked outside.
Caspian stayed.
His face had gone cold.
“What did Granddad say?”
Dalton looked at him.
“He told me I wasn’t the man he thought I was.”
That sounded exactly like Dad.
“What happened to the letter?”
“I kept it.”
“Why?”
Dalton gave a tired laugh.
“I asked myself that for years.”
I knew why.
Shame is strange.
Sometimes people preserve the thing that hurts them because they believe pain counts as punishment.
It doesn’t.
“Seraphine took it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She thinks it proves I stole from you.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
At least he stopped lying.
I called Evelyn.
She came within an hour.
Dalton repeated everything.
She listened.
Then asked:
“Why are you cooperating?”
He looked at Caspian.
“Because my son looked at me today like I was a stranger.”
Caspian didn’t respond.
Evelyn asked:
“Where is Seraphine?”
“I don’t know.”
“Any reason to think she would destroy evidence?”
“Yes.”
“Then we need immediate action.”
Court orders moved quickly after that.
Seraphine’s accounts were flagged.
The condo title was frozen.
The lake property couldn’t be transferred.
Dalton agreed to give investigators full access to his records.
In exchange?
Nothing yet.
He had finally realized cooperation was not currency.
The next morning, Seraphine called me.
I almost ignored it.
Evelyn had given instructions.
Record.
Say little.
Do not threaten.
Do not negotiate.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Seraphine laughed.
“Enjoying yourself?”
“Not particularly.”
“You always were boring.”
“What do you want?”
“To help you.”
I nearly smiled.
“You took my inheritance.”
“Dalton took your inheritance.”
“And paid you.”
“That’s different.”
“No.”
Silence.
Then:
“I have your father’s letter.”
“I know.”
“Dalton told you?”
“Yes.”
“He really is weak.”
I felt something strange.
Not defense of him.
Just recognition.
Seraphine had used Dalton’s weaknesses exactly the way he used mine.
“What do you want?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
I almost laughed.
“For a letter?”
“For the original.”
“I have legal remedies.”
“Not before it disappears.”
My fingers tightened.
“Then destroy it.”
She went silent.
She expected desperation.
I felt it.
But I would not feed it.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“That letter is from your dead father.”
Tears filled my eyes.
I kept my voice steady.
“My father loved me whether I read it or not.”
Silence.
For the first time, I heard uncertainty.
I continued.
“You can’t sell me something I already know.”
She disconnected.
Evelyn had been listening.
“That was good.”
I wiped my face.
“It hurt.”
“I know.”
Within hours, Seraphine’s lawyer contacted Evelyn.
She wanted a deal.
Not criminal.
Civil.
Return some property.
Keep some money.
Avoid public claims.
I refused.
Evelyn asked:
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Litigation could take time.”
“I’ve already lost years.”
“What matters most?”
“Truth.”
And Caspian.
Always Caspian.
Three days later, police executed a search warrant at Seraphine’s sister’s home after financial investigators traced a storage payment.
They found boxes.
Documents.
Jewelry.
Cash.
My father’s letter.
Evelyn called immediately.
“They recovered it.”
I sat down.
“Can I read it?”
“After it’s processed.”
“How long?”
“Soon.”
I hated that word.
But this time it meant something good was coming.
Dalton was formally suspended from his law firm pending investigation.
Martin Shaw resigned the same day.
Too late.
Peter Lowell’s documents had already reached authorities.
The state bar opened an inquiry.
Financial crimes investigators began interviewing everyone.
The graduation speech remained online.
Caspian hated the attention.
Strangers called him brave.
He said he didn’t feel brave.
I told him:
“Brave people usually don’t.”
He started packing for university.
Every box felt like a countdown.
In eight weeks, he would leave.
I had spent eighteen years working toward that moment.
Now I wanted time to stop.
One evening, he found me folding towels unnecessarily.
“Mum.”
“What?”
“You’re reorganizing.”
“I like organization.”
“You alphabetized spices yesterday.”
“I was inspired.”
He smiled.
Then his face softened.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
I sat.
“I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you too.”
“It’s stupid.”
“No.”
“I spent my whole life trying to get you somewhere bigger.”
He sat beside me.
“And now you’re going.”
“That was the plan.”
“I know.”
He leaned against my shoulder.
“For what it’s worth, I’m not leaving you.”
My eyes filled.
“I know.”
He smiled.
“And I expect food packages.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then I may reconsider college.”
I laughed.
That evening, Evelyn called.
My father’s letter had been released.
She offered to bring it.
I drove to her office instead.
The envelope was yellowed.
Dad’s handwriting across the front.
Dalton.
Not me.
I opened it.
Dalton,
I know about Seraphine.
My hands shook.
If you no longer love my daughter, have enough decency to leave honestly.
Do not punish her for trusting you.
I stopped reading.
Tears fell onto the paper.
There was more.
Money can be replaced.
A home can be rebuilt.
But if you teach Caspian that a man proves his strength by humiliating the woman who stood beside him, you will damage something far more valuable than any account.
I covered my mouth.
Dad had worried about Caspian.
Even then.
The final paragraph broke me.
Miranda has spent too much of her life believing love means sacrifice without limits.
Do not use that against her.
She will survive losing you.
What she must never lose is herself.
I cried for a long time.
Then Evelyn quietly placed another document beside me.
“What’s this?”
“A preliminary recovery calculation.”
I wiped my face.
“How much?”
“Between appreciation, diverted assets, concealed income, and property interests…”
She paused.
“You may be entitled to more than two million dollars.”
I stared at her.
Then I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because after years of counting every dollar, the number sounded unreal.
But Evelyn wasn’t smiling.
“What?”
“There’s another issue.”
Of course.
“What?”
“The lake house.”
“What about it?”
“Dalton placed it in Caspian’s name.”
“Yes.”
“That may have created tax and legal obligations for him.”
My stomach dropped.
“Can Caspian be blamed?”
“No.”
“But?”
“Someone has been using his identity for more than property.”
My heartbeat slowed.
“What do you mean?”
May you like
Evelyn turned the paper toward me.
“There are business loans in your son’s name.”
