Chapter 10 - Teresa’s Version of the Truth
Teresa contacted Connor that afternoon.
She called from an unknown number and demanded to meet him alone. She claimed she had information that would keep Amy and the children alive.
Connor told Mara immediately.
Mara arranged the meeting in a public park under surveillance. Amy insisted on attending, though she remained in an unmarked vehicle with Ross nearby.
Teresa appeared wearing borrowed clothes and no makeup. For the first time in years, she looked older than her age.
Connor stood beside an empty bench.
“Where is Rose Ward?”
Teresa stopped.
“So Amy found the photograph.”
“You met her.”
“I met a woman who said she was Rose.”
“Why?”
“She contacted me eight months ago. She knew about your company’s debt. She knew Amy’s trust could save it.”
Connor’s jaw tightened.
“You agreed to declare my wife dead.”
“I agreed to a transfer that was supposed to be reversed.”
“You agreed to erase the mother of my children.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From losing a company?”
“From losing everything.”
Teresa looked toward the walking path, scanning every face.
“Malcolm Vale controlled the loans that were destroying your business. The lenders, the suppliers, the lawsuits. He created the crisis so you would become desperate.”
Connor remembered projects canceled without explanation. A bank suddenly reducing his credit. Suppliers demanding early payment.
“Why me?”
“Because you married Amy.”
Teresa sat on the bench.
“The woman calling herself Rose said Malcolm would ruin you unless the trust opened. She said Amy would be declared dead for forty-eight hours, the assets would transfer, and then the record would be corrected. She promised no one would lose the house.”
“And you believed her?”
“I believed what I needed to believe.”
“What about the story that Amy abandoned us?”
“That was Vale’s condition if the correction was delayed.”
“Lily heard you rehearsing it.”
Teresa closed her eyes.
“I never planned to hurt the children.”
“You already did.”
“I know.”
Connor stared at her.
It was the first time she had admitted it without defending herself.
“Why did you stop Amy from taking Noah to a doctor?”
“The bank had flagged the transfer. Vale told me Amy could not create any new official records before midnight. A hospital visit would prove she was alive.”
Connor’s face drained of color.
“You risked my son’s health to protect a forged death certificate.”
“I thought his fever was mild.”
“You did not care whether it was mild.”
Teresa began to cry, but Connor felt no urge to comfort her.
“Where is Rose?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Malcolm?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did you ask me here?”
Teresa reached into her coat slowly.
Police officers moved closer from hidden positions.
She removed a memory card.
“The woman at the train station gave me this. She said if anything went wrong, I should give it to Amy.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because she also said the recording would destroy our family.”
Connor held out his hand.
Teresa did not release the card.
“There is something about your father on it.”
“My father died when I was twelve.”
“That is what I told you.”
The park seemed to go silent.
Connor’s hand lowered.
“What did you say?”
Teresa’s eyes filled with shame.
“Your father was involved with Malcolm. When he tried to leave, Malcolm arranged his death.”
“Arranged?”
“The body was never identified by me.”
Connor stepped back.
He remembered a closed casket. Teresa crying against his shoulder. Adults refusing to answer questions.
“Who identified him?”
Teresa looked toward the unmarked vehicle where Amy waited.
“Evelyn Ward.”
A sharp crack echoed across the park.
Teresa fell behind the bench.
Connor dropped beside her.
She had not been struck. A bullet had hit the wood inches from her hand, knocking the memory card into the grass.
Officers rushed toward the trees.
A motorcycle accelerated beyond the park gate.
Amy ran from the vehicle despite Ross’s warning.
She reached Connor as he searched through the grass.
The memory card was gone.
But beneath the bench, taped to the wood before Teresa arrived, they found a small white envelope.
Inside was a message addressed to Connor.
May you like
Your father is alive.
He is the reason Amy was declared dead.
