Chapter 5
Dad looked through the cracked doorway at his brother.
“Tell me this isn’t real.”
Uncle David couldn’t meet his eyes.
Vanessa stood behind him with her arms folded.
Amanda looked almost pleased.
Dad held up the sworn statement.
“You told a court Grace threatened Vanessa?”
David finally spoke.
“I told them what I heard.”
“What did you hear?”
“A conversation.”
“When?”
“Thanksgiving.”
My heart pounded.
I remembered Thanksgiving.
David and his family had come for dinner.
Vanessa and I had argued because she moved Mom’s serving platter into the garage.
I had said something angry.
But I hadn’t threatened her.
David rubbed his jaw.
“You said you wished Vanessa would disappear.”
I stared at him.
“That’s not a death threat!”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
Dad snapped.
“You know exactly what Grace meant.”
“I’m not choosing sides.”
Grandma appeared beside Dad.
“You already did.”
David looked ashamed.
Vanessa interrupted.
“Michael, we can fight publicly or settle privately.”
Rebecca had warned Dad not to negotiate.
He remembered.
“Talk to my lawyer.”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
Dad closed the door.
The next morning was Christmas Eve.
Instead of baking cookies with Grandma, I sat in Rebecca’s office.
She read Vanessa’s filing.
“This is aggressive,” she said.
Dad looked exhausted.
“Can she take the house?”
“Not just because she asks.”
“What about Grace?”
Rebecca turned to me.
“The allegation is serious, but one vague comment is not proof of a threat.”
Grandma muttered, “Especially when the alleged victim spent months stealing the kid’s identity.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Exactly.”
Then she pointed to Vanessa’s financial disclosures.
Something was wrong.
Vanessa claimed she had almost no money.
Yet she had paid rent on a secret apartment for eight months.
“Where did that money come from?” Dad asked.
Rebecca smiled slightly.
“That is an excellent question.”
By afternoon, we had part of the answer.
The bank traced one of the missing transfers.
The money hadn’t gone directly into my savings account.
It had passed through it.
Then it moved into several prepaid financial accounts.
One was linked to an email address.
Detective Harris recognized it from the apartment search.
Vanessa’s.
Dad sat down hard.
“So they can prove it?”
“They can prove connection,” Rebecca said. “The investigation is still developing.”
Another discovery came from the pawn shop.
Vanessa had not acted alone.
Security footage showed someone waiting outside in a car.
Amanda.
Vanessa’s sister.
Suddenly the entire family war changed.
Amanda wasn’t supporting her innocent sister.
She might have been helping her.
Police contacted Amanda for questioning.
That was when she panicked.
At six o’clock Christmas Eve, Amanda arrived alone.
Dad wouldn’t let her inside.
We spoke through the open doorway.
“I need to talk to Michael.”
Dad crossed his arms.
“Talk.”
Amanda looked at Grandma and me.
“Privately.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“She lied to me.”
Grandma’s expression didn’t change.
“Which lie?”
Amanda swallowed.
“All of it.”
Dad stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
Amanda began crying.
She admitted Vanessa had asked her to drive to the pawn shop.
Vanessa said the jewelry belonged to her.
Amanda had believed it.
At least that was her story.
“What about the fake license?” I asked.
Amanda stared at me.
“I didn’t know.”
“What about the apartment?”
“I knew she rented one.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“She told me she was planning to leave you.”
“How long?”
Amanda whispered, “Almost a year.”
That hurt Dad.
But the next part hurt worse.
Amanda said Vanessa had been talking to someone else.
A man named Eric.
Dad froze.
“Who’s Eric?”
Amanda shook her head.
“I never met him. She said he was helping her start over.”
Grandma asked, “Romantically?”
Amanda hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dad walked away from the doorway.
I followed him with my eyes.
His marriage had just died in a single sentence.
Maybe it had died months ago.
He simply hadn’t known.
Amanda kept talking.
Vanessa had planned to divorce Dad after Christmas.
She wanted money first.
She believed Dad would fight over the house, so she wanted leverage.
That leverage was me.
“She wanted Michael to believe Grace was stealing,” Amanda whispered.
I felt sick even though I already knew.
“She said if Grace looked dangerous and unstable, Michael would be too distracted protecting her to investigate finances.”
Dad turned around.
“And the insurance?”
Amanda went pale.
“I don’t know anything about that.”
Grandma watched her carefully.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You looked terrified before Michael finished the question.”
Amanda started backing away.
“I should go.”
Dad stepped toward her.
“What do you know about the insurance?”
“Nothing.”
“Amanda.”
She began crying harder.
“Vanessa said it was just financial protection.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Amanda ran to her car.
Detective Harris called twenty minutes later.
We told him everything.
He told us not to contact Vanessa, Amanda, or Eric.
“Who is Eric?” Dad asked.
“We’re trying to determine that.”
Christmas morning didn’t feel like Christmas.
Still, Grandma insisted.
“We are not giving Vanessa December twenty-fifth.”
We made breakfast.
Dad lit the fireplace.
I repaired the tree as much as I could.
Grandma had secretly glued Mom’s angel together overnight.
A crack ran across the body.
One wing sat slightly crooked.
But it was whole.
When Grandma handed it to me, I cried.
“It isn’t perfect,” she said.
“It is to me.”
We placed it near the top.
Dad hugged me.
For a few minutes, we were simply a family.
Then the doorbell rang.
We all froze.
Detective Harris stood outside.
His expression told us something had happened.
Dad let him in.
“Did you find Eric?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
The detective looked from Dad to me.
“Eric Dalton. Forty-one. Former insurance broker.”
Grandma narrowed her eyes.
“Former?”
“He lost his license two years ago after allegations involving fraudulent policies.”
Dad slowly sat down.
Detective Harris continued.
“We also recovered messages between Dalton and Vanessa.”
“What kind of messages?”
“They discussed your insurance policy.”
My heart hammered.
Dad whispered, “Was she planning to hurt me?”
The detective paused.
“Some of the messages are ambiguous.”
“Meaning?”
“One message from Vanessa says, ‘Once Michael is out of the picture, everything gets easier.’”
Nobody spoke.
Then Detective Harris placed another printed message on the table.
It had been sent by Eric three weeks earlier.
DOES THE GIRL STILL LOOK LIKE THE PROBLEM?
Vanessa had responded:
YES. BY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE WILL BELIEVE IT.
I stared at the page.
May you like
They weren’t only trying to steal from Dad.
They were preparing to blame me for something that hadn’t happened yet.
