Chapter 7: What My Father Chose
A gray-haired investigator entered with a document case.
“Which one of you is Eleanor Hart?”
“I am.”
He placed a folder in front of me.
“Do you recognize this application?”
“My name and address are mine.
The signature is not.”
He turned to Dad.
“Martin Mercer, your signature appears as witness and guarantor.”
Dad lowered himself into a chair.
“Dad?” I said.
Felicity stepped between us.
“He signs things for both of us.
That proves nothing.”
The investigator opened another page.
“He also certified that Eleanor was present.”
Denise stared at her husband.
“Was she?”
Dad rubbed both hands over his face.
“Martin, answer her.”
“No,” he said.
The single word emptied the air from my chest.
“You knew?”
“I knew Felicity was opening a business account.
I didn’t know she would take Silas’s money.”
“You certified that I was standing in front of you.”
“She said you had agreed.”
“Did you call me?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He looked at Felicity, then at me.
“Because whenever I questioned her, there was chaos.
With you, there was silence.”
My eyes burned.
“So you chose the daughter who punished you.”
“I chose peace.”
“No, Dad.
You chose the person who made peace expensive for everyone else.”
He reached for my hand.
I pulled it back.
“I failed you,” he said.
“You didn’t fail to notice me.
You noticed that I would endure it.”
His shoulders folded.
“You’re right.”
Felicity struck the table with her palm.
“Stop groveling!
She has always wanted this—Dad begging, everyone staring, Julian rescuing her.”
“I wanted my mail,” I said.
“I wanted my mother’s locket.
I wanted my own name.”
“And now you have them.
Drop this.”
The investigator closed the folder.
“The bank has frozen the remaining funds and notified the relevant authorities.”
Felicity looked at Julian.
“Tell them this is a family misunderstanding.”
“No.”
“I gave up everything for you.”
“You paid for our wedding with money taken from Eleanor.”
“I did it so your family would respect me!”
Silas faced her.
“Respect cannot be purchased with another woman’s identity.”
A uniformed officer approached the investigator and spoke quietly.
Felicity backed toward Julian.
“Please.
We can leave tonight.
Your father has enough money to fix this.”
Julian removed his wedding ring and placed it beside the untouched cake knife.
“There is no ‘we.’”
“You promised to marry me.”
“I promised the woman you pretended to be.”
The officer asked Felicity to come with him for a formal interview.
She pointed at me.
“She manipulated all of you!
She couldn’t stand that I was finally happy.”
I held her gaze.
“Your happiness required me to disappear.”
As she was escorted toward the doors, she twisted back toward Julian.
“You’ll regret choosing her side.”
“I chose the truth.”
The doors closed behind her.
Dad pushed the guarantee toward the investigator.
“I will give a full statement.”
Denise stood beside me, not him.
Silas’s attorney opened a second folder.
“Eleanor, there is one more problem.”
“I don’t think I can take another one.”
“I wish I could say it was small.”
He showed me six credit accounts, all opened under my name.
The total balance was eighty-three thousand dollars.
May you like
Then he pointed to the address attached to every account.
It was the house where my father and Felicity had kept telling me no mail had arrived.
