Chapter 9 - The Lie Patricia Built Her Son's Life Around
By noon, the wedding story had already begun spreading.
Not the real story.
The easy one.
Bride humiliates groom after cake prank.
Guests posted fragments.
Someone uploaded a ten-second video of Derek shoving cake into my face.
Another clip showed me holding the recorder.
Comments multiplied faster than truth could.
Gold digger.
Abusive husband.
Crazy bride.
Publicity stunt.
Nobody online knew about the forged transfer.
Robert Hale.
Thomas.
Patricia.
And I finally understood why Derek had always been so obsessed with appearances.
Patricia had raised him inside a story.
Their family was the victim.
My family was the enemy.
Control the narrative before anyone else speaks.
At 1:30 p.m., Patricia called me.
I nearly rejected it.
Then I remembered the recorder app Lena had installed that morning under legal guidance.
I answered.
"Claire."
Her voice was calm.
"Where are you?"
"Why?"
"We should talk privately."
"I've had enough private conversations with your family."
She sighed.
"Derek is unstable."
I almost laughed.
"You trained him."
"You don't know my son."
"I know enough."
"No. You know the man he became after meeting you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"He started questioning things."
There it was.
Not anger that Derek had hurt me.
Anger that I made him harder to control.
Patricia continued.
"Robert's death destroyed Derek. I gave him an explanation he could live with."
"You told him my father was responsible."
"Your family was responsible."
"That's not the same thing."
She became quiet.
I pushed.
"Why did you email Thomas that Robert couldn't talk?"
Nothing.
"Patricia?"
"That email proves nothing."
"Then tell me what happened."
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
Her voice hardened.
"Robert was going to expose everything."
"What everything?"
"The distribution fraud."
"Thomas's fraud?"
A pause.
Then:
"Mine."
I stopped breathing.
Patricia confessed almost casually.
She had managed bookkeeping for Robert's distribution company.
Thomas Reed approached her with a profitable side arrangement.
Unauthorized equipment was redirected.
Invoices altered.
Robert didn't discover it until months later.
When he did, he threatened to expose both of them.
Patricia would lose everything.
Possibly go to prison.
That night at the warehouse, Thomas confronted Robert.
My father arrived because Robert had called him.
The argument escalated.
Robert collapsed.
"But he wasn't dead," I said.
"No."
"What happened after my father left?"
Patricia didn't answer.
"You gave him the sedative?"
"No."
"Thomas?"
Silence.
"Patricia."
"Robert was already sick."
"That isn't an answer."
"He was going to destroy Derek's life."
Her words became softer.
"He was going to leave us with nothing."
I felt cold.
"So you let him die."
"No."
"Did you call an ambulance?"
Silence.
"Did Thomas?"
Nothing.
That was the answer.
Robert had collapsed but remained alive.
My father left believing Patricia would get medical help.
Instead, she and Thomas waited.
Maybe minutes.
Maybe longer.
Long enough.
Then they built a story blaming Mercer Biomedical.
Patricia spent twenty-one years hating my family for consequences created by her own crime.
"Why target me?" I asked.
"Because Mercer should never have belonged entirely to your family."
"So you introduced Derek to me."
"Yes."
"Did he know?"
"Not at first."
The words mattered.
"At first?"
Patricia stopped.
I pressed.
"When did Derek learn why you introduced us?"
No response.
My chest tightened.
"Patricia."
She laughed softly.
"Ask your husband what happened the night he proposed."
Then she disconnected.
I stared at the phone.
Derek proposed eight months earlier at a lakeside restaurant.
Candlelight.
Private terrace.
My favorite flowers.
He cried when I said yes.
I had believed that night was real.
Now I called him.
"What happened the night you proposed?"
Silence.
Then Derek whispered:
"My mother told me who you were before I gave you the ring."
My heart cracked open.
He had known.
Not everything.
May you like
But enough.
And he had proposed anyway.
Related Stories
