Chapter 6 - clara left more than one warning)
By ten thirty, the Christmas dinner had become an investigation.
Food went cold.
Candles burned lower.
Nobody touched dessert.
Robert moved everyone to the library because the dining room now felt contaminated by what had happened.
Emily sat near the fireplace wearing a black sweater and trousers.
Her wet red dress hung upstairs.
The wedding ring remained beside the bathroom sink.
Daniel sat across from her.
For eleven years, Emily had known every tiny gesture he made when nervous.
The way he pressed his tongue against one side of his cheek.
The way he checked his watch even when time was irrelevant.
The way his right foot bounced.
Tonight all three were happening.
Robert placed Clara's old letter on the coffee table.
"What else did your mother leave you?"
Emily frowned.
"Personal things."
"Documents?"
"I went through everything after she died."
"Anything connected to me?"
Emily thought.
"She had a box."
Margaret, standing by the window, turned.
Emily noticed.
"What box?" Robert asked.
"A blue metal document box. It had insurance policies, birth certificates, tax records."
"Where is it?"
"My apartment storage unit."
Daniel spoke too quickly.
"You got rid of that."
Emily looked at him.
"No, I didn't."
"You told me you cleared the unit."
"I moved furniture. The documents stayed."
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
Emily studied him.
"Why do you care?"
"I don't."
"You remembered a storage unit I haven't mentioned in two years."
Margaret said, "Everyone is exhausted."
Emily ignored her.
"Did you ever go there?"
Daniel stood.
"This is absurd."
"Did you?"
"No."
Emily's mind moved backward through dozens of tiny incidents.
Her storage key disappearing.
Daniel finding it two days later beneath the seat of his car.
A box arriving from Columbus already opened.
Her mother's desk papers being reorganized while Emily was away.
At the time, each event had seemed explainable.
Together, they formed something else.
She looked at Daniel.
"You searched my mother's things."
His face gave him away.
Rachel muttered, "Daniel."
Emily felt no shock this time.
Only exhaustion.
"When?"
Daniel looked at the floor.
"A year after she died."
"Why?"
"My mother believed Clara kept copies."
"Of Schedule B?"
"I didn't know what it was called."
Margaret said sharply, "Stop talking."
Daniel looked toward her.
Then something unexpected happened.
He laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the absurdity finally reached him too.
"For once in my life, Mom, I think I'm going to do exactly the opposite of what you tell me."
Margaret stared.
Daniel turned to Emily.
"She told me Clara had stolen documents from the family."
Emily said nothing.
"She said if those papers resurfaced, they could destroy Dad's company."
Robert frowned.
"My company?"
Daniel nodded.
"She said Clara was blackmailing you."
Robert stared at Margaret.
"You told him that?"
Margaret looked away.
Daniel continued.
"I searched the storage unit. I found the blue box."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"What did you take?"
"Nothing."
"I don't believe you."
"I didn't take anything."
"Then what did you see?"
"Letters."
"Which letters?"
"Most were between your mother and an attorney named Helen Price."
Robert stiffened.
"I know that name."
Emily looked at him.
"Who is she?"
"Was. Helen died about five years ago. She represented Clara."
Daniel continued.
"There was also a photograph."
"A photograph of what?"
Daniel's expression became strange.
"Mom."
Margaret turned.
"Don't."
Daniel went on.
"It was a photograph of my mother standing beside Clara."
Emily blinked.
"What?"
"They were smiling."
Robert sat back.
"What year?"
"Nineteen ninety-eight, maybe ninety-nine."
Robert looked genuinely confused.
"Margaret said she barely knew Clara."
Daniel nodded.
"That isn't what the picture looked like."
Emily stared at Margaret.
The story changed again.
Margaret had portrayed Clara as a threat.
A hostile investor.
A woman trying to steal Robert's success.
But apparently she and Clara had once been friendly enough to pose together.
Margaret folded her arms.
"It was a business event."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"How would you know?"
"Because you were standing in front of this house."
Robert rose.
"What?"
Daniel looked at his father.
"It looked like the house was still under construction."
Robert walked toward him.
"Describe it."
Daniel did.
Unfinished stonework.
Wooden framing.
No landscaping.
Margaret and Clara standing together on the front steps.
Robert stared into space.
Then whispered, "The groundbreaking dinner."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Emily asked, "What happened?"
Robert turned slowly.
"Clara wasn't simply an investor."
Margaret snapped, "Robert."
He ignored her.
"She helped design the original development plan."
Emily stared.
"My mother?"
"She had studied architecture before changing careers. I forgot how involved she was."
"You forgot?"
Robert looked ashamed.
"I allowed myself to forget."
Margaret moved toward him.
"Because it didn't matter."
"It mattered to Clara."
"Clara was paid."
Robert's voice rose.
"Then why were you pretending you barely knew her?"
Margaret's face hardened.
Emily saw something shift.
A secret deeper than property.
She asked, "What happened between you and my mother?"
Margaret looked at her.
The hatred in her eyes suddenly felt personal in a way Emily had never understood.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
Margaret smiled without warmth.
"Your mother was supposed to become part of this family."
Emily waited.
Robert went still.
Daniel whispered, "What does that mean?"
Margaret looked directly at Robert.
"Tell them."
He seemed unable to speak.
Margaret continued.
"Before Robert married me, Clara believed he was going to marry her."
The room became silent.
Emily's eyes moved to Robert.
"Is that true?"
May you like
Robert did not deny it.
And for the first time that night, Margaret's rage made a terrible kind of sense.
