Chapter 9 - THE BROTHER I NEVER KNEW EXISTED
For thirty-four years, I thought Grant was my only brother.
He wasn’t.
My mother had a son before she married Dad.
His name was Caleb Mercer.
She gave birth to him at eighteen.
Her parents forced her to place him for adoption.
Dad knew.
Nana knew.
Aunt Deborah knew.
Grant and I did not.
Mom sat at the cabin table with her arms wrapped around herself while the truth came apart.
Caleb found her seven years earlier.
“He didn’t want anything at first,” she said.
Dad laughed bitterly.
“That is not what you told me.”
She looked at him.
“You were already drowning the company.”
“What does Caleb have to do with the missing money?” I asked.
Mom’s mouth trembled.
“He had debts.”
Silas’s expression hardened.
“What kind?”
“Business.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
He had his phone out.
“I searched him.”
Mom stood.
“Grant—”
“He owned a sports bar in Tampa.”
Dad stared.
“How do you know?”
“Public records.”
Grant scrolled.
“Closed four years ago. Two lawsuits. Tax liens.”
Mom grabbed his wrist.
“Stop.”
He pulled away.
“You stole from the company for him.”
“I helped my son.”
The words exploded out of her.
My son.
Something about the way she said it hurt more than I expected.
As though motherhood could justify anything when it came to Caleb.
But not me.
Never me.
“You had another daughter too,” I said.
Mom looked at me.
The anger drained from her face.
For one second, shame appeared.
Then she hardened again.
“You chose to leave.”
“No.”
Dad spoke before I could.
“She didn’t.”
Mom turned toward him.
“Robert.”
“I threw her out.”
The room went quiet.
My father looked at me.
“I threw my daughter out.”
He turned toward Grant.
“And then I let your mother tell everyone Colleen left.”
Mom stared at him like he had betrayed her.
Maybe in their world, truth was betrayal.
Mom sat down again.
“I sent Caleb money because he had nowhere else.”
“How much?” Grant asked.
“Enough.”
“How much?”
She looked at the table.
“Most of it.”
Most of $611,000.
Plus perhaps more.
Miriam’s voice was precise.
“Did Mr. Mercer receive company funds directly?”
“No.”
“Through WCR Holdings?”
Mom hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Did he know where the money came from?”
“No.”
Dad laughed once.
“You don’t know that.”
“I protected him.”
“From what? Knowing his mother was stealing?”
Mom slapped the table.
“I was not stealing from strangers! That company belongs to this family!”
“It belongs fifty-one percent to Colleen,” Miriam said.
Mom turned on me.
“That was Ruth’s revenge.”
“No,” I said.
“It was protection.”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“Against her own son?”
“Maybe against people who thought family meant they could take whatever they wanted.”
That stopped her.
For once, nobody rushed to comfort her.
Miriam closed the ledger.
“We will confirm the amounts tomorrow.”
Mom stood.
“I’m going home.”
Dad looked at her.
“No.”
She froze.
“What?”
“You’re not coming back to Sycamore Street tonight.”
Mom laughed.
“You can’t throw me out of my own house.”
The irony almost knocked the air from my lungs.
Dad heard it too.
His face twisted.
“No,” he said quietly. “I suppose I can’t.”
I thought of nineteen-year-old me in the rain.
Suitcase open on wet grass.
My mother halfway up the stairs.
Watching.
Dad picked up his keys.
“I’ll stay at the agency.”
He turned toward me.
“Colleen, the cabin is legally yours. Miriam confirmed it.”
Mom stared at him.
“You’re giving her Ruth’s cabin?”
“It was never ours to give.”
That sentence was the first sign my father might actually understand what accountability meant.
Mom left alone.
After the door closed, Grant sat beside me.
“I should have found you.”
“You were seventeen when I left.”
“Still.”
“They lied to both of us.”
He nodded.
Then his phone buzzed.
He looked down.
His face changed.
“What?”
“It’s Mom.”
He showed me the message.
CALL ME. CALEB KNOWS.
My stomach tightened.
“Knows what?”
Another message arrived immediately.
HE KNOWS ABOUT COLLEEN.
Dad whispered, “Oh God.”
I looked at him.
“What aren’t you telling me now?”
Dad stared at the phone.
Then at me.
“Caleb didn’t find your mother by accident.”
May you like
My skin went cold.
“He found her because Nana Ruth contacted him.”
