Chapter 6: The Name Nobody Knew
Daniel set the phone down on the table slowly, like it might break.
"Who is he?" he said again.
Linda's hands were in her lap.
She wasn't looking at anyone.
"He contacted me three years ago," she said.
"He said he was your father's son.
From before we were married."
The candles on the table were the only things that moved.
"He had documentation," Linda said.
"A birth certificate.
Letters.
He said he needed money to stay quiet.
That if Robert's family found out, it would—" She stopped.
"He said it would destroy everything."
Daniel turned to his father.
Robert's face was unreadable.
"Is it true?" Daniel said.
"No," Robert said.
"Then why didn't you—"
"Because I didn't know," Robert said.
"I didn't know any of this until four months ago." He looked at Linda.
"She never told me."
My mom picked up her wine glass.
Set it back down.
"Linda," she said carefully, "you've been paying this man for three years."
"Yes."
"From money you took from other people's events."
A pause.
"Yes."
"Did you ever ask for proof?
Beyond what he sent you initially?"
Linda's chin dropped slightly.
"I was afraid."
"Of what he had, or of what Robert would think?"
Linda didn't answer.
Daniel stood up.
He walked to the window and stood with his back to the table, hands in his pockets, looking out at the dark yard.
"Three years," he said.
"You've been paying a stranger for three years, with money you stole from our friends and family, because you were too afraid to tell Dad."
"I was protecting this family."
"You were protecting yourself," Daniel said.
He didn't say it cruelly.
He said it like a fact.
Linda flinched as though he had.
Robert reached across the table and picked up Linda's phone.
He looked at the transfer history.
Scrolled through it.
His jaw tightened once, then released.
"Do you have his contact information?" Robert asked.
"In my email."
"Forward it to me.
Tonight."
"Robert, if you confront him—"
"I'm not going to confront him," Robert said.
"I'm going to give it to someone who handles this kind of thing." He set the phone down in front of her.
"This man has been extorting you, Linda.
That's a crjme.
And everything you paid him is evidence."
Linda looked up.
Something shifted in her face — not relief, but the first loosening of a weight she had been carrying alone for a very long time.
"I didn't know what else to do," she said.
"You could have told me," Robert said.
"On the first day."
"I know."
"You could have told Daniel."
"I know."
"Instead you took money from a twenty-two-year-old's baby shower."
Linda closed her eyes.
My mom looked at me across the table.
A small, steady look.
I understood it.
This was not the dinner she had planned for.
But she was not surprised.
She had left room for something like this.
Daniel came back to the table.
He didn't sit.
He stood behind his chair with his hands on the back of it, the same way Linda had stood an hour ago.
"Is there anything else?" he said.
"Anything else we don't know?"
Linda shook her head.
"Look at me and say that," Daniel said.
She looked at him.
"No.
That's everything."
He studied her for a long moment.
Then he pulled out his chair and sat down.
"Okay," he said.
"Then here's what we're going to do."
He picked up the repayment agreement.
Turned to the last page.
"Mom, you're going to sign this.
Tonight.
And you're going to forward that email to Dad.
Tonight." He looked at Robert.
"Dad, you're going to handle the other thing your way.
I don't need to know the details."
Robert nodded.
Daniel looked at my mom.
"Is there anything in here that needs a lawyer before she signs?"
"No," my mom said.
"It's a personal agreement.
It's not legally binding in a court sense, but it's a record.
And a promise."
Daniel set the pen on the table in front of Linda.
She looked at it for a long moment.
Then she picked it up.
She signed her name on the line.
Passed it to Robert.
He signed.
My mom signed last.
She folded her copy and put it in the folder.
No one said anything for a moment.
Then Linda said, very quietly, "I'm sorry.
For last night."
She was looking at me.
I didn't say anything yet.
I wasn't ready to.
But I didn't look away either.
My mom reached over and refilled Linda's wine glass.
May you like
"Eat something," she said.
"There's still food."
