Chapter 8: The Unknown Number
I showed Sarah the message.
She read it twice.
Her expression didn't change in the way I expected — no confusion, no alarm.
Instead she went very quiet in the way she did when something confirmed what she'd already suspected.
"Do you know who that is?" I said.
"I think so." She set the phone down.
"I think it's Raymond."
"My uncle Raymond."
"Your mother called him today.
Before you came home.
I heard her from the hallway — she didn't know I was awake.
She told him the plan wasn't working and that he needed to stay out of it." She looked at me.
"He didn't sound like he agreed."
I picked up the phone and called the number.
It rang four times.
Then a man's voice, rougher than I remembered, older.
"Daniel."
"Raymond.
What money?"
A long exhale.
"I wondered when this day would come."
"Tell me."
"Your father's estate.
When he d*ed, the money didn't go where the will said it should." A pause.
"Your mother had the will amended.
Six weeks before he passed.
When he was already too ill to fully understand what he was signing."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"How much?" I said.
"Enough.
The house in Cornwall.
The investment accounts.
There was also a trust — set up for you and for any children you had.
That trust was dissolved.
The money moved into accounts your mother controls."
"That's Lily's inheritance."
"Yes."
"And you've known this how long?"
Another pause.
Longer.
"Too long.
I'm sorry, Daniel.
She told me if I said anything she'd tell your father's side of the family that I'd borrowed money from him and never repaid it.
It wasn't true, but they'd have believed her." His voice dropped.
"I should have said something years ago.
I know that."
I looked at Sarah across the table.
She was watching my face.
"Will you put that in writing?" I said.
"Everything you just told me."
"Yes."
"All of it.
Signed."
"Yes.
Whatever you need."
I ended the call.
Sarah reached across the table and put her hand over mine.
She didn't say anything.
She didn't need to.
I turned my hand over and held hers.
"She wasn't just trying to get rid of you," I said.
"She was protecting what she'd already taken.
If we divorced, you'd have had legal access to financial records.
You might have found it."
"She needed me gone before I looked too closely."
"Yes."
Sarah was quiet for a moment.
"What do we do now?"
"Tomorrow morning," I said, "we call a solicitor.
We get Raymond's statement in writing.
We get the letter from Voss.
And we find out exactly what she did with your father's estate and Lily's trust."
"And tonight?"
I looked at her.
She looked tired and pale and she was still in the clothes she'd been wearing when a stranger had driven her to a clinic without her consent.
But she was here.
She was home.
"Tonight," I said, "we lock the doors and we don't answer the phone."
May you like
She almost smiled.
"That I can do."
