Chapter 2: The Name in the Third Column
My hands were shaking before I even reached the second page.
The notebook wasn't a budget.
It wasn't household expenses.
It was a record.
Column one: the date my transfer arrived.
Column two: the amount.
Column three — and this is the part that made my stomach drop — a name I didn't recognize.
"Danny.
Who is Patricia Holt?"
He sat down slowly.
"Mom's been sending her money every month.
Has been for years."
"Sending her— why?"
He wouldn't look at me.
"Danny."
"Patricia Holt is Dad's other daughter," he said.
"From before he married Mom.
Nobody was supposed to know she existed."
The room went very quiet.
I looked back at the notebook.
Six years of my overtime.
My night shifts.
My holidays.
My $1,400.
My $2,000.
Quietly moved from my account.
To my mother.
To a secret.
"She used my money to pay for a secret she was keeping from the whole family," I said.
Danny nodded once.
"And Sunday," I said slowly.
"She wants me standing beside her at that church."
He finally looked up.
"Tori…
Patricia Holt is coming to Homecoming Sunday too."
---
What happens when Tori walks into that church — and comes face to face with the secret her mother paid to keep buried for years?
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