Chapter 8: His Tessa
I stared at the message for a long time.
Janet read it over my shoulder and said nothing.
I typed back: *Where are you right now?*
The reply came immediately: *Outside Aunt Janet's.
I followed you from the hotel.
I know that's weird.
I'm sorry.
I just didn't know how else to find you.*
Janet was already moving toward the front window.
She pulled the curtain back an inch.
"There's a car parked across the street," she said.
"Engine off.
One person inside."
I stood up.
"Claire," Janet said carefully.
"She's seventeen," I said.
"And she left me the folder."
I walked to the front door and opened it.
Tessa was already out of the car.
She was wearing a hoodie and jeans and she looked nothing like the girl who had stood in the backyard that afternoon pointing at me with tears running down her face.
She looked smaller.
She looked exhausted.
She stopped at the edge of the front path.
"I'm sorry about today," she said.
"The cookout.
I didn't want to do it."
"Then why did you?"
She looked down at the pavement.
"Because my dad asked me to.
He said he needed a reason to get you out of the house for a few hours.
He said there were some things he needed to move before you — before you found anything." She looked up.
"I didn't know what that meant until later.
When I got home and saw your necklace on the table."
I stood in the doorway and looked at her.
"You've known about the second folder for four months," I said.
"Yes."
"And you left it where I could find it."
"I moved it to the closet three weeks ago.
The one on his side.
I left it slightly open last week." Her voice was steady but her hands were not.
"I couldn't tell you directly.
He would have known it came from me.
But I couldn't keep watching you not know."
"Why did you care?" The question came out more bluntly than I intended.
"You've spent five years making my life difficult."
She flinched.
"I know," she said.
"He told me to.
Not in those words.
But he always said things like — if Claire gets too comfortable she'll start asking questions, and if she starts asking questions everything falls apart.
He made me feel like protecting him meant being difficult with you." She paused.
"I was twelve when he started saying things like that.
I didn't understand what I was protecting him from."
Janet appeared in the hallway behind me.
She didn't say anything, but I felt her presence.
"What's in the LLC?" I asked.
Tessa reached into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
She held it out.
I stepped forward and took it.
It was a printed bank statement.
Harwell-Vance Holdings LLC.
The balance at the top made my breath go short.
"He's been moving money into it for three years," Tessa said.
"I found the statements in his car the same day I found out about my half-sister.
He doesn't know I have copies."
I looked at the number on the page.
"He was planning to leave," I said.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"I think he was waiting until the timing was right.
Until enough was moved.
Until it would be too late for you to do anything about it."
I folded the paper carefully and held it at my side.
"Tessa." I looked at her.
"I need you to tell Grace everything you just told me.
My attorney.
Tomorrow morning."
She nodded without hesitating.
May you like
"I know," she said.
"That's why I'm here."
