Chapter 2 - The Account Robert Forgot
The man outside introduced himself as Daniel Brooks.
He was not a police officer.
He was not a lawyer.
He was an accountant who had worked for Carter Development almost fifteen years earlier.
Robert refused to let him inside.
Daniel stood on the porch holding a thin black folder.
“I only need five minutes.”
“You should have called.”
“I did.”
Robert looked away.
Daniel's eyes shifted toward Lena.
“Are you Lena Carter?”
“Yes.”
Daniel studied her face for a moment.
Then he looked at Robert.
“So she finally knows.”
Susan stepped between them.
“Knows what?”
Daniel did not answer.
Robert grabbed the folder.
“You said this was confidential.”
“It was.”
“And now you're here?”
“Because you stopped returning my calls.”
Robert's hand tightened around the folder.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“The old account was never closed.”
Lena felt something cold settle in her stomach.
“What account?”
Robert immediately interrupted.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Daniel looked at Lena.
“It has everything to do with you.”
Susan turned toward her husband.
“Robert, what is he talking about?”
Robert remained silent.
Lena walked closer.
“Tell me.”
Robert shook his head.
“No.”
The answer was so immediate that Lena almost laughed.
For years, every difficult conversation in their family had ended the same way.
No.
Not now.
Not today.
You're too young.
You don't understand.
It isn't your business.
But Lena was twenty-eight now.
She had built her career without their help.
She had paid her own rent.
Her own student loans.
Her own insurance.
Her own car.
And yet her parents had continued treating her salary as though it were family property.
She looked at Daniel.
“What account?”
Daniel hesitated.
Robert said quietly, “Don't.”
Daniel opened the folder.
“An investment account was created in Lena's name when she was eighteen.”
Lena stared at him.
“I never had an investment account.”
“You did.”
“How much was in it?”
Daniel looked at Robert.
Robert's eyes closed.
That was answer enough.
Lena's voice dropped.
“How much?”
Daniel finally said the number.
Lena couldn't process it.
It was more money than she had earned in several years.
Susan covered her mouth.
“You told me that account never existed.”
Robert looked at his wife.
“You weren't supposed to know about it.”
Susan's face went white.
Lena stared between them.
“You both knew.”
Neither answered.
Daniel continued.
“The account was funded with money that came from a settlement.”
Lena frowned.
“What settlement?”
Daniel looked at her carefully.
“The settlement connected to your grandfather.”
Lena felt the room tilt.
Her grandfather had died when she was eighteen.
She remembered the funeral.
She remembered her mother crying.
She remembered Robert telling her that there had been no inheritance.
He had said her grandfather had left nothing.
Lena had believed him.
For ten years.
She slowly looked at Robert.
“You told me Grandpa left nothing.”
Robert swallowed.
“He didn't leave you anything directly.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“That isn't true.”
Robert glared at him.
Daniel continued.
“The settlement was placed into an account for Lena.”
Lena's hands began to shake.
“How much was originally deposited?”
Daniel named the amount.
Lena stared at him.
“And what's left?”
Daniel didn't answer.
She already knew.
Almost nothing.
Robert stepped forward.
“Lena, listen to me.”
She raised a hand.
“Don't.”
“I was protecting you.”
“You took my money.”
“I invested it.”
“Without telling me.”
“You were eighteen.”
“That doesn't make it yours.”
Robert's voice rose.
“You were a child.”
“And somehow you needed half my salary when I became an adult?”
Silence.
Susan suddenly said, “We used some of it for the house.”
Lena looked at her.
“Some?”
Susan looked away.
Robert said, “We were going to replace it.”
“When?”
No answer.
Lena looked down at the papers.
Then she noticed a signature.
Her signature.
At least, it looked like hers.
She picked up the document.
“This isn't my signature.”
Robert's face changed.
Daniel noticed it too.
“Where did you get that document?”
Robert said nothing.
Lena looked closer.
The signature had been used to authorize a transfer.
A transfer made when Lena was twenty-two.
A transfer large enough to empty almost the entire account.
She slowly raised her eyes.
“Who signed this?”
May you like
Robert whispered one sentence.
And it was the first time Lena realized her mother might have been hiding something from him too.
