Chapter 6: The Name in the Email
"Who sent it?" I said.
Diane took the phone back and looked at the screen.
"The address is a fake account.
Created the same day the email was sent, never used again." She set the phone face-down on the table.
"But my father knew who it was.
He recognized the phrasing.
The way certain sentences were constructed."
"Who?"
"His younger brother.
Daniel."
I sat back.
"The brother he protected," I said.
"The one your grandfather threatened."
"Yes." Diane's voice was quiet.
"Daniel has known the full story for a year — since my father told him about the diagnosis.
And apparently he has been — processing it in his own way."
"By sending anonymous emails."
"By sending anonymous emails and, we think, by talking to other people." She folded her hands in her lap.
"My father has a solicitor.
A man named Garrett who has handled his affairs for fifteen years.
Two weeks ago, Garrett called my father and said someone had been asking questions about his estate.
About whether there were any — informal arrangements.
Any beneficiaries not named in the current will."
Something cold moved through me.
"He thought I was after money," I said.
"Daniel thought you were after money," Diane said carefully.
"My father never thought that.
But Daniel has apparently decided that your reappearance in my father's life is — strategic."
"I didn't even know Thomas was ill until twenty minutes ago."
"I know that."
"I drove a thousand miles because I still — " I stopped.
"I drove because I couldn't not."
"I know that too." Diane looked at me steadily.
"But Daniel doesn't know you.
He knows a story.
He knows that his entire university education, his whole career, the life he built — all of it was paid for at your expense.
And I think he has spent the last year trying to find a reason why that's not as terrible as it sounds."
"By deciding I'm a threat."
"By deciding you're a threat." She paused.
"He's flying in tomorrow."
The waiting room felt smaller suddenly.
"Does Thomas know?"
"Thomas knows Daniel is coming.
He doesn't know about the email or the questions to Garrett.
I found out this morning, from Garrett directly, while my father was being stabilized." She looked at her hands.
"I haven't told him yet.
He doesn't need that today."
"What does Daniel want?"
"I think he wants you gone," she said plainly.
"I think he wants to look at you and decide you're the villain in this story because that is considerably easier than looking at what his father did and what he himself benefited from."
I thought about a seventeen-year-old boy who had never known the price of his education.
Who had built a life on a foundation he didn't know was cracked.
Who had found out at whatever age he was now — seventies, probably — and had nowhere to put it.
"I don't want his money," I said.
"I want Thomas to know that."
"He knows."
"I want Daniel to know it too."
Diane looked at me for a long moment.
"Then you'll have to tell him yourself," she said.
"Because he lands at seven tomorrow morning and I don't think he's coming here to listen."
The television on the wall showed a weather map.
Rain moving in from the west.
The paper cup of coffee had gone completely cold.
"All right," I said.
Diane blinked.
"All right?"
"I'm not leaving," I said.
"I drove a thousand miles.
I'm not going to be frightened off by a man who has spent fifty years not knowing I existed." I stood up.
"I'm going back to sit with Thomas.
Is there anything else I should know before tomorrow?"
Diane stared at me for a moment.
Then something in her face loosened — just slightly, just enough.
"No," she said.
"I think that covers it."
May you like
I walked back down the corridor toward Thomas's room.
Behind me, I heard Diane pick up her phone.
