Chapter 13 - KYLE’S PRICE FOR SILENCE
Kyle did not answer Daniel’s calls.
He answered mine.
Maybe because he assumed I was easier to manipulate.
Maybe because he had not learned anything.
“Claire.”
His voice sounded irritated.
Not frightened.
“What?”
“I want to talk without attorneys.”
“No.”
“You’re making everything legal.”
“It became legal when money was stolen from my company.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“No.”
He cursed.
Then:
“Daniel told you.”
“About David?”
Silence.
There it was.
“You knew.”
Kyle exhaled.
“So?”
Daniel stood across Rebecca’s conference room listening.
I had put the call on speaker without announcing who else was present.
“How long?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
“Seven years.”
Daniel shut his eyes.
Exactly as Dad suspected.
“How did you find out?”
“Mom’s attic.”
“What did you find?”
“Letters.”
“From David?”
“Yes.”
“And DNA paperwork?”
“Later.”
“Did Daniel know?”
Kyle laughed.
“Daniel never knows anything Mom doesn’t want him to know.”
Daniel flinched.
Cruel.
Accurate.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
I looked at the payment spreadsheet.
“Really?”
Silence.
“Kyle.”
“Mom helped me sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“My businesses needed capital.”
“You had four failed businesses.”
“Three.”
“Your fitness company dissolved.”
“It’s restructuring.”
I almost laughed.
“You discovered your mother’s biggest secret, and six months later her financial support to you increased fivefold.”
“That proves nothing.”
“No.”
I looked toward Rebecca.
“But bank records might.”
Kyle went quiet.
“You’re recording this.”
“I don’t need to.”
Technically true.
Rebecca was documenting.
“Kyle, did you threaten Patricia?”
“No.”
“Did you tell her you would tell Daniel?”
Silence.
“No.”
“That pause was impressive.”
“Go to hell.”
Daniel stepped toward the phone.
I held up a hand.
Not yet.
“Kyle, why did you reactivate D.K. Family Ventures?”
“Mom asked me.”
“Why that company?”
“She said it already existed.”
“Did you know what D.K. stood for?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Daniel turned away.
“What did you think it meant?”
Kyle laughed.
“David Kendall.”
“Why would your mother want a company named after the man she had an affair with?”
“She didn’t.”
“What?”
“I did.”
That surprised us.
“Explain.”
Kyle sounded almost proud.
“I told her if she wanted me running paperwork, we were using that name.”
“Why?”
“To remind her not to treat me like an idiot.”
There it was.
Not open blackmail.
Something more intimate.
A loaded gun placed on a table without being fired.
Patricia understood.
Kyle understood.
No one else needed to.
“What did she give you?”
“Nothing.”
“Wrong.”
“Business support.”
“How much?”
“That’s private.”
“No.”
I stared at the spreadsheet.
“Over $300,000 in seven years.”
Kyle cursed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Numbers are difficult when someone finally adds them.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Sad.
“What did you do with the fake Meridian?”
“I didn’t create it.”
“Your name is on the filing.”
“Mom created the plan.”
“You registered it.”
“She told me it was a legitimate commission company.”
“You used an email address one word away from mine.”
Silence.
“Did Patricia tell you to do that too?”
“No answer.
“Kyle?”
“I’m done talking.”
Daniel finally spoke.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
Silence.
Kyle said:
“You had Dad.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“What?”
“You were always his favorite.”
“That is not true.”
“It is.”
“Dad bailed you out constantly.”
“Because Mom forced him.”
“Kyle.”
“You had the career.”
“Because I worked.”
“You had Claire.”
That stopped all of us.
Kyle continued.
“You had somebody competent cleaning up your life.”
I felt anger rise.
Daniel looked at me.
Then down.
Kyle laughed bitterly.
“Mom always said Claire would make sure you were fine.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Mom used her.”
“So did you.”
That landed.
Daniel said nothing.
Kyle continued.
“Don’t suddenly pretend you’re different because your wife finally got tired.”
I watched Daniel absorb it.
No defense.
That mattered.
Then Kyle said:
“And don’t act shocked about Dad.”
“Walter was my dad.”
“I know.”
“You just said—”
“I mean real dad. The guy who raised you.”
Daniel went quiet.
Kyle sighed.
“David doesn’t matter.”
For all Kyle’s cruelty, that was almost kind.
Then he ruined it.
“Except Mom thinks he does.”
“What?”
“She’s been sending him money.”
David had told us the opposite.
“What money?”
“Ask her.”
“How much?”
“No idea.”
“When?”
“For years.”
Rebecca immediately started tracing.
Daniel asked:
“Why?”
Kyle hesitated.
Then:
“Because David has something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kyle.”
“I really don’t.”
“Then why mention it?”
“Because Mom told me if anything ever happened to her house, David could fix it.”
The trust house.
My pulse shifted.
“How could David fix it?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Kyle added:
“She said Walter made one mistake when he created the trust.”
“What mistake?”
“He left evidence somewhere that the house was never supposed to go to charity.”
Rebecca’s head snapped up.
“What evidence?”
Kyle laughed.
“Now you care what I know.”
“I’ve cared the whole time.”
“Too late.”
He hung up.
Rebecca immediately called the trust archive.
Dad called David.
Daniel sat silently.
I watched him.
“You okay?”
He laughed quietly.
“No.”
Fair.
Twenty minutes later, Dad returned.
“David says Patricia has never sent him money.”
“Then Kyle lied.”
“No.”
Dad sounded unsettled.
“David thinks the money went to someone pretending to be him.”
Rebecca looked up.
“Identity fraud?”
“Possibly.”
Then the trust archivist called.
There was, in fact, another document related to the house.
Not an amendment.
An appraisal.
Twenty-four years old.
Prepared before Walter transferred the property into trust.
Attached was a purchase option.
Buyer:
D.K. Family Ventures.
Original owner:
David Kendall.
My stomach dropped.
The option gave David Kendall the right to purchase Patricia’s house for $275,000 under certain conditions.
The house was now worth almost $900,000.
Rebecca read the trigger clause.
“If Walter Reynolds dies and Patricia Reynolds’s occupancy is terminated before her death…”
She stopped.
Daniel stared.
“What?”
Rebecca continued:
“D.K. Family Ventures receives first purchase option.”
Silence.
Patricia’s fraudulent mortgage could terminate her occupancy.
Which would activate an ancient purchase option held by Daniel’s biological father’s company.
Except that company was now controlled by Kyle.
I stared at the page.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel understood too.
Kyle had not just been blackmailing Patricia for money.
May you like
He had positioned himself to buy the trust house at less than one-third of its value if Patricia lost the right to live there.
And Patricia’s own fraud had just triggered exactly that possibility.
