Chapter 8 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
Nora followed Elaine into the women’s restroom because Elaine refused to continue speaking at the table.
“This is ridiculous,” Nora said.
“It’s private.”
“So was Grandma’s archive.”
Elaine checked the stalls.
Empty.
Then locked the door.
“Daniel contacted me eleven years ago.”
“Why you?”
“Because he believed Mother would have him arrested.”
“For what?”
Elaine looked at Nora.
“For disappearing.”
“He was taken.”
Elaine laughed.
“According to Alan?”
“You know what Alan told me?”
“I know Alan has spent his entire career cleaning up his own cowardice.”
Nora’s anger rose.
“Stop avoiding the question.”
Elaine gripped the marble sink.
“Daniel called me from Toronto.”
“Canada?”
“He said he had spent years using another name.”
“Why?”
“He claimed people were searching for him.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Did he ask about me?”
Elaine looked away.
That answer hurt more than Nora expected.
“He did.”
“What did you tell him?”
Silence.
Nora’s voice cracked.
“What did you tell my father?”
Elaine turned.
“I told him you were better without him.”
Nora stared.
“You had no right.”
“He abandoned you.”
“He was taken.”
“You have one frightened attorney’s story.”
“And Grandma.”
“Mother wanted to believe Daniel was innocent because the alternative made Rachel’s choices look foolish.”
Nora stepped closer.
“What did my father want?”
“File 17.”
“Why?”
“He said it proved Rachel was killed.”
The restroom seemed silent enough for Nora to hear her own pulse.
“What did you do?”
“I told Mother.”
“And?”
“She met Daniel.”
Nora grabbed the counter.
“My grandmother saw him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“What happened after they met?”
“Daniel disappeared again.”
Nora’s eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall.
“Did he see me?”
Elaine hesitated.
“No.”
“Did he ask to?”
“Yes.”
Nora looked away.
Thirty-one years of believing she had been unwanted.
And eleven years earlier, her father may have been alive and close enough to ask for her.
“Why didn’t he?”
Elaine’s voice softened slightly.
“Mother stopped him.”
Nora turned.
“That doesn’t sound like Grandma.”
“You didn’t know everything about her.”
Neither, apparently, did Elaine.
When Nora returned to the table, Harold was there.
He had arrived after security informed him of the meeting.
Elaine looked irritated.
“You people communicate like a cult.”
Harold sat.
“What did she tell you?”
Nora answered.
“That Daniel returned eleven years ago.”
Harold went still.
Nora stared.
“You knew.”
“I knew Eleanor met someone.”
“My father.”
“She never confirmed it.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Harold sighed.
“I suspected.”
Nora felt betrayed.
“You all keep deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
Harold accepted the accusation.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel believed you were safer if you knew nothing.”
“Daniel?”
Elaine’s head turned.
“You spoke to him?”
Harold looked at her.
“Once.”
Nora almost laughed from disbelief.
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“Did everyone in my life meet my father except me?”
Harold’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
Harold removed his glasses.
“He said Rachel’s death was connected to Arden House.”
Elaine stood.
“We’re done.”
Nora blocked her path.
“Why does that scare you?”
Elaine whispered, “Because Arden House was never supposed to exist on Bennett records.”
“Yet it did.”
“Yes.”
“Who authorized the payments?”
Elaine looked at Harold.
Then Nora.
“Your grandfather.”
Nora frowned.
“Grandpa Thomas died before I was born.”
“Exactly.”
Harold said nothing.
Elaine continued.
“The first payments began two years after Thomas Bennett died.”
Nora understood.
“Someone used his authorization identity.”
“Yes.”
“Who had access?”
Elaine answered.
“My mother.”
“Grandma denied it.”
“Rachel.”
Nora flinched.
“Marcus’s father.”
Nora looked at Elaine.
Elaine’s husband, Richard Bennett, had died nine years earlier.
“And,” Elaine said, “Daniel Cross.”
Nora stared at her.
“My father had access to Bennett companies?”
“He was not a random boyfriend, Nora.”
“What was he?”
Elaine smiled without humor.
“He was our internal security director.”
Nora turned toward Harold.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
Her father had not been an outsider.
He had worked inside Eleanor’s businesses.
He had access.
He had investigated.
Then disappeared.
Nora returned to the trust office that afternoon and demanded every record involving Daniel Cross.
Priya worked until midnight.
At twelve-fourteen, she found something.
A payroll entry.
Daniel Cross.
Security Director.
Termination date: November 10, twenty-two years earlier.
Reason:
DECEASED.
Nora stared.
“That’s wrong.”
Priya nodded.
“Very.”
“He disappeared on November tenth.”
“Yes.”
“Who entered him as dead?”
Priya traced the administrative record.
Then stopped.
Harold leaned forward.
“What?”
Priya rotated the screen.
May you like
The account used to mark Daniel Cross deceased belonged to someone still active within the family organization.
Marcus Bennett.
