Chapter 4
Elise Marlow changed everything.
Until that point, I believed I understood my father's downfall.
Bad investments.
Pride.
Vanessa.
A desperate man trying to maintain the lifestyle he had lost.
The three million dollars told a different story.
Daniel's investigators found Elise within twenty-four hours.
She lived forty minutes away.
Not in another country.
Not hidden behind some international account.
Forty minutes.
She owned a small interior-design company and a lake house worth nearly two million dollars.
Paid in cash.
By one of my father's shell companies.
Daniel sent me her photograph.
I stared at it.
She looked familiar.
I couldn't place her.
Then Clara leaned over my shoulder.
"Arthur."
"What?"
"I've seen her."
My stomach tightened.
"Where?"
"Your parents' anniversary party."
I looked again.
Suddenly, I remembered.
A blonde woman in a blue dress.
She had stood near my father most of the night.
When I asked who she was, he had called her an old client.
"Twenty-fifth anniversary?"
Clara nodded.
"She hugged your father when she left."
I sat back.
"No."
Clara said nothing.
She didn't need to.
I called Daniel.
"Find out if they're having an affair."
"We're already checking."
I almost told him not to.
Some part of me didn't want another truth.
But truth didn't care whether I wanted it.
By noon, Vanessa had started a new strategy.
Threats.
She sent twenty-seven messages.
You are destroying Dad.
The company money was supposed to come back.
You think Clara loves you? She loves your money.
Everyone will know what kind of son you are.
Then:
If Dad gets arrested, that's on you.
I deleted none of them.
Daniel wanted everything preserved.
At three, my father finally sent a message that wasn't a demand.
Meet me alone.
I almost ignored it.
Then another arrived.
There are things you don't understand about Elise.
I showed Clara.
She looked worried.
"You don't owe him privacy."
"I want answers."
"Then don't go alone."
So I didn't.
I brought Daniel.
My father chose a private room at his country club.
The same club I had paid membership dues for.
That irony wasn't lost on me.
When I entered, Dad looked ten years older.
His suit was still immaculate.
His posture wasn't.
He looked at Daniel.
"I said alone."
"And I've spent enough years doing things your way."
Daniel sat near the door.
Dad poured himself whiskey.
I stayed standing.
"Who is Elise?"
He stared into the glass.
"Someone I care about."
My stomach turned.
"How long?"
"Arthur."
"How long?"
He finally looked at me.
"Nineteen years."
I laughed.
I couldn't help it.
"Nineteen years?"
"Lower your voice."
"No."
My mother and father had celebrated thirty-seven years of marriage.
For nineteen of them, he had apparently been with someone else.
"Does Mom know?"
His silence answered.
"No."
"Vanessa?"
Another silence.
My chest tightened.
"Vanessa knows?"
"She found out several years ago."
Of course.
That explained their strange alliance.
The way he defended her.
The way she had panicked when Daniel mentioned his involvement.
"What did you give her?"
"Who?"
"Vanessa. What did you give her to keep quiet?"
He looked offended.
"Nothing."
Daniel spoke from behind me.
"Then why did transfers to VLM Lifestyle Holdings begin fourteen months after Ms. Mercer appears to have discovered your relationship?"
Dad turned.
"You shouldn't be discussing private financial matters."
Daniel almost smiled.
"They stopped being private when you used Arthur's company."
Dad looked at me.
"I intended to repay everything."
I shook my head.
"Where have I heard that before?"
"Elise needed help."
"Three million dollars?"
"Over nineteen years."
"Money you didn't have."
He slammed the glass down.
"You think everything is simple because you succeeded."
"No."
My voice rose.
"I think stealing is simple."
"I didn't steal from you."
"You pledged my company as collateral."
"Only because lenders trusted the family name."
"My name."
His face tightened.
There it was.
The thing he hated.
My success had surpassed his.
He hadn't just used my company because it was available.
He had used it because admitting he needed me was unbearable.
"I built the foundation you stand on," he said.
I stared at him.
"You built your business. I built mine."
"You had my connections."
"I had one desk, two employees, and ninety thousand dollars in debt."
"I introduced you to people."
"And somehow that means you own everything I built?"
His jaw moved.
"You owe this family."
"I paid."
I stepped closer.
"For ten years, I paid."
He looked away.
I continued.
"I paid your mortgage, your taxes, Mom's expenses, Vanessa's car, her apartments, her failed companies, family travel, medical bills, clubs, parties."
My voice shook.
"And while I was doing that, you were taking more behind my back."
"You would have said no."
That sentence stunned me.
He didn't deny it.
He justified it.
"You knew I wouldn't agree, so you forged access."
"I did what was necessary."
"For your mistress?"
He stood abruptly.
"Do not call her that."
I stared.
There was more emotion in his voice defending Elise than I had heard when Clara was humiliated.
I laughed bitterly.
"Unbelievable."
He looked exhausted.
"Elise has a son."
I went still.
Daniel shifted behind me.
My father continued.
"He is seventeen."
I stared at him.
"No."
Dad's eyes filled.
"His name is Evan."
Every sound in the room disappeared.
"You have another son?"
He nodded.
My knees nearly gave out.
Nineteen-year affair.
Seventeen-year-old child.
Three million dollars.
The failure of Dad's company had happened shortly after Elise became pregnant.
Suddenly, everything aligned.
"Is that why your company collapsed?"
His face changed.
"Partly."
"Explain."
"Your mother found suspicious expenses."
"So you moved money."
"I was trying to protect everyone."
I laughed.
"Stop saying that."
"It's true."
"No. You were protecting yourself."
He rubbed his face.
"Elise threatened to leave with Evan if I didn't provide stability."
"And Mom?"
"She had you and Vanessa."
I stared at him.
That sentence hurt in ways I couldn't explain.
As if having two children somehow made betrayal acceptable.
"Did Vanessa meet him?"
Dad looked away.
"Yes."
My stomach turned.
"How long has she known about Evan?"
"Four years."
I stepped back.
Four years.
Four Christmases.
Four birthdays.
Four years of Vanessa looking our mother in the face while helping Dad hide another family.
"Why is she stealing corporate money?"
"She thinks I promised her too much."
"What does that mean?"
Dad sat down again.
"She demanded financial security in exchange for silence."
Daniel's voice became sharp.
"Are you saying Vanessa blackmailed you?"
Dad didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
I felt sick.
My sister hadn't only known.
She had monetized the secret.
"Does Mom know anything?"
"No."
I turned toward the door.
Dad stood.
"Arthur."
I stopped.
"If you expose this, your mother will collapse."
I looked back.
"You should have thought of that nineteen years ago."
His face hardened.
"You always think you're morally superior."
"No."
I opened the door.
"I just finally stopped volunteering to clean up your crimes."
When I returned home, Clara was waiting.
I sat beside her and told her everything.
She cried.
Not for my father.
For my mother.
Despite all the cruelty, Clara still had compassion for her.
"I don't know how to tell her," I said.
"You may not have to."
I looked up.
"What?"
She handed me her phone.
Vanessa had posted something.
A photograph.
My father standing beside Elise and a teenage boy on a boat.
The caption was vicious.
Since everyone wants secrets exposed, let's expose all of them.
My heart dropped.
Clara whispered, "Your mother follows her."
My phone rang.
Mom.
I answered.
She wasn't crying.
That scared me.
Her voice was barely audible.
"Arthur."
"I'm here."
"Who is that boy?"
I closed my eyes.
"Mom—"
"Who is that boy standing next to your father?"
I couldn't lie.
Not anymore.
May you like
So I told her the truth.
"His son."
