Chapter 4 - THE VACATION WASN'T REALLY A VACATION
Mark didn't say another word until Lily had been taken with a female airport officer to get hot chocolate.
The second she was out of earshot, he turned toward me.
“Jessica has a boyfriend.”
I stared at him.
“I didn't know that.”
“Apparently your parents did.”
“Who?”
“Derek Shaw.”
The name meant nothing to me.
Mark pulled out his phone and showed me a photograph.
Jessica stood beside a tall man outside a restaurant.
Her hand was on his chest.
A diamond flashed on her left ring finger.
“That picture was taken twelve days ago,” Mark said.
“She's engaged?”
“She hasn't told me.”
“Why would she have to tell you?”
“Because she's been pushing for permission to relocate Lily.”
I suddenly understood.
“Where?”
“Florida.”
Orlando.
The destination printed on my parents' boarding passes.
Mark continued.
“Jessica filed a relocation request six weeks ago. She wants to move with Lily and marry Derek. I opposed it because Lily told her school counselor she barely knows him.”
I looked toward the café where Lily sat with the airport officer.
“She told us this was a family vacation.”
“It wasn't.”
My phone buzzed.
My building manager had sent security stills.
I opened the first image.
My mother was entering my building on Wednesday.
The second showed Jessica beside her.
The third showed Dad carrying a laptop bag.
They had all been inside my apartment.
Together.
I felt something colder than anger.
For years, I had believed our family was dysfunctional.
I hadn't realized they were capable of planning something like this.
An officer asked me to forward the photographs.
I did.
Mark's attorney began making calls.
Then Mark suddenly looked at me.
“What time is their flight scheduled to land?”
I checked.
“Forty-five minutes.”
“In Orlando?”
“Yes.”
He began typing.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding out whether Orlando is their final destination.”
My stomach twisted.
Ten minutes later, he received an email.
His attorney had contacted the airline.
Jessica and my parents had round-trip Atlanta-Orlando reservations.
But the return segments had been purchased separately less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Fully refundable.
Mark frowned.
“They're placeholders.”
“For what?”
“Maybe to make it look like they're coming back.”
I thought about Lily saying Jessica was beginning a new life.
Then my phone rang.
My bank.
I answered immediately.
The fraud department representative verified my identity.
“Ms. Carter, we're calling because you just reported unauthorized activity on your credit card. During our review, we noticed something else that may concern you.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
“Yesterday, a transfer was initiated from your personal emergency savings account.”
I stood.
“How much?”
“Twenty-four thousand eight hundred dollars.”
For a second, the airport blurred around me.
“What?”
“The transfer was authorized using your legacy joint-account credentials.”
Legacy.
The word made me sick.
Years earlier, when I was twenty-two and just starting my design agency, Mom had helped me open that account.
I had removed her access.
Or thought I had.
“Where did the money go?”
The representative gave me the merchant information.
SUNCREST LUXURY TRAVEL.
Mark looked over.
“What is it?”
I put the phone on speaker.
The representative continued.
“The payment memo references international charter services.”
The officer beside me straightened.
“International?”
“Yes.”
Mark's attorney heard it too.
“How many passengers?”
The bank representative couldn't tell us.
But twenty minutes later, Mark's attorney could.
She had found a corresponding charter booking through a corporate travel database.
Four adult passengers.
Departure city: Orlando.
Departure time: 6:40 p.m.
Destination: Grand Cayman.
The passenger names were partially hidden.
But the first initials were visible.
J.B.
E.C.
R.C.
D.S.
Jessica Bennett.
Eleanor Carter.
Robert Carter.
Derek Shaw.
I stared at the screen.
My mother.
My father.
My sister.
Her secret fiancé.
They weren't going to Orlando for ten days.
May you like
They were leaving the country.
And Lily had never been included in their real plan.
