Chapter 4: The Other Account
I handed Frederick back to Amy and told her to wait in the car.
She started to say something.
I held up one hand.
Not harshly.
Just — wait.
I walked toward Mason.
He saw me coming and ended the call.
His phone disappeared into his jacket pocket in one smooth motion, like he'd been practicing for exactly this moment.
"Who were you talking to?" I said.
"Nobody."
"Mason."
"A friend."
"You just said 'there's still the other account.' What account?"
He looked past me toward the street.
The way people look when they're calculating how far they are from an exit.
"Mason.
I'm not asking again."
He exhaled.
His shoulders dropped about an inch.
"Your mother set up a second account," he said.
"About eight months ago.
She's been moving money into it.
Not all of it.
Small amounts.
Enough that you wouldn't notice on a single statement."
My jaw tightened.
"How much?"
"I don't know the exact number."
"Estimate."
He looked at the ground.
"Maybe thirty, thirty-five thousand."
Thirty-five thousand dollars.
I did the math without meaning to.
Three thousand a month.
Twelve months.
Thirty-six thousand.
Nearly every dollar I had sent her.
"She told me it was a safety net," Mason said.
"In case you ever cut her off.
She said Amy was going to turn you against the whole family eventually, and she needed to be ready."
"And you helped her."
"I drove her to the notary." He said it quietly.
"I didn't know what she was signing.
I swear to you, Connor, I didn't know it was your deed."
"But you knew about the account."
He didn't answer.
That was its own answer.
I took a breath.
"Give me the name of whoever you just called."
"Connor—"
"Give me the name."
His jaw worked for a moment.
"Raymond.
Your mother's — she's been seeing him.
He helped her set up the account.
It's in his name, technically.
She didn't want it traceable back to her."
Raymond.
I had never heard that name in my life.
I walked back to the officer who had the folder.
"There's a second account," I said.
"Approximately thirty-five thousand dollars.
Held under a third party named Raymond.
My cousin can give you the details."
The officer looked at Mason.
Mason looked at me.
"I'll cooperate," he said.
It came out like a surrender.
I nodded once and walked away from him.
Amy was in the passenger seat, the door open, her feet on the driveway.
Frederick was asleep across her lap.
She had one hand resting on his back, moving in slow circles.
I crouched down beside her.
"There's more," I said.
"I know." Her voice was very quiet.
"There's always more with her."
"She's been moving money out for eight months.
Into an account I didn't know existed."
Amy closed her eyes briefly.
"How much?"
"Thirty-five thousand.
Maybe more."
She didn't react the way I expected.
No gasp.
No tears.
She just nodded slowly, like someone confirming something they had already suspected.
"She showed me the account once," Amy said.
I went still.
"What?"
"About six months ago.
She came over when you were at work.
She sat at our kitchen table and she opened her phone and she showed me a number." Amy looked up at me.
"She said if I ever told you anything — anything about what she was doing — she would tell you about my first marriage and make it sound like I was a crjminal.
She said she had enough money to disappear and enough information to destroy me."
The driveway felt very quiet.
"She threatened you," I said.
"Yes."
"For six months."
"Yes."
"And you stayed silent."
Amy's hand kept moving in slow circles on Frederick's back.
"I didn't know what to do.
I was scared.
And I kept thinking — if I told you, you'd have to choose.
And I was terrified you'd choose her."
I looked at my wife.
At the exhaustion in her face.
At the way she was holding our son like he was the only solid thing left.
"Amy," I said.
"I need you to tell me everything she said to you.
Every visit.
Every threat.
Every word."
She searched my face.
"All of it," I said.
"Because I'm going to need it."
She nodded.
And then, from across the driveway, one of the officers called my name.
"Mr.
Bradley.
May you like
We're going to need you to come down to the station tonight.
There's something in that folder we haven't shown you yet."
