Chapter 7 - THE LAWYER IN THE VIDEO
Gavin turned toward Mr. Keene.
“You?”
Mr. Keene didn't move.
For one terrible second, I thought we had trusted the wrong man.
Then Arthur's video continued.
“Not Keene.”
Everyone exhaled at once.
Mr. Keene gave Gavin a look.
“Thank you for the immediate confidence.”
“Sorry.”
“Later.”
Arthur continued:
“Thomas Bell.”
Mr. Keene's expression hardened.
“Bell.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Former partner.”
Thomas Bell had left Keene's firm twelve years ago.
He later became general counsel for Harper Development.
Lucas's lawyer.
Of course.
Arthur explained that Bell helped Dean Harper hide assets and create a false identity after federal investigators began looking into the dumping operation.
Richard Shaw helped through political connections.
Then Dean returned secretly.
Arthur confronted him.
“He threatened my family.”
Arthur's voice broke.
“Ruth knows some of this. Not all.”
Gavin looked toward his mother.
She was crying.
“Dad protected us.”
Ruth nodded.
Arthur continued:
“I made arrangements to preserve the evidence. If Gavin is watching this, son, listen carefully.”
Gavin moved closer to the television.
“Do not confuse ambition with loyalty.”
His face changed.
“Dean will use someone younger. Someone you think is your friend.”
Lucas.
Arthur had predicted it.
“He may even use Veronica.”
Gavin's knees nearly gave out.
That sentence had been recorded eleven years ago.
Veronica had been part of Gavin's life then.
Arthur had already seen the connection.
The tape ended with one final warning:
“The Milford land is not an inheritance. It is a responsibility.”
Silence.
Sarah Lin looked at the samples.
“We need these secured immediately.”
Federal environmental investigators were contacted.
So were state authorities.
Mr. Keene arranged independent chain-of-custody transfers.
Gavin stood outside the pump house.
I joined him.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then he said:
“I thought my father saw me as weak.”
“Why?”
“He was always criticizing Lucas.”
“And you thought that meant he didn't trust your judgment.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the land.
“Maybe he was afraid you wanted Lucas's approval too much.”
Gavin laughed bitterly.
“I wanted everyone's approval except yours.”
I said nothing.
He looked at me.
“Mariana.”
“No.”
“I haven't even said anything.”
“I know where this is going.”
His eyes lowered.
“I'm sorry.”
“That isn't where I thought it was going.”
A humorless smile.
“I deserve that.”
I looked directly at him.
“You don't get to turn this conspiracy into a shortcut around what you did.”
His face tightened.
“I'm not.”
“Lucas manipulated you. Veronica manipulated you. Maybe they planned the timing.”
I stepped closer.
“But you looked at me after eight years and told me your children needed their real mother.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You made Ben afraid to hug me.”
“I know.”
“You let Hannah think loving me was disloyal to Veronica.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
“This part belongs to you.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
That answer mattered.
Not enough.
But it mattered.
Then Sarah called us back inside.
She had found something beneath the false bottom of the chest.
A birth certificate.
Not one of the children.
Veronica Shaw.
Her legal father was listed as Richard Shaw.
But attached was a DNA report performed privately twenty years earlier.
Probability of paternity:
99.98%.
Father:
Dean Harper.
I stared.
Lucas Harper's father.
Gavin read the page twice.
“Veronica is Dean's daughter.”
Sarah nodded.
“Which makes her…”
I finished:
“Lucas's half-sister.”
Gavin went pale.
He and Veronica had dated since high school.
Lucas had known them both.
Had introduced Gavin to business contacts.
Had stood beside him at our wedding.
And possibly knew Veronica was his sister the entire time.
Then Sarah found a letter from Arthur.
Ruth,
Dean does not know I have confirmation. Richard raised Veronica as his own. If Dean discovers she is his daughter, he'll use her.
I looked toward the road.
Veronica had spent months working for Lucas.
May you like
Her own half-brother.
And almost certainly had no idea.
