Chapter 2: The Man Who Answered for His Father
By the time Emily’s plane landed, the manila envelope had softened at the corners from being opened and shut in her lap.
She’d spent most of the flight lining up dates: the hotel receipts, the messages, the property filings she’d saved to her phone. One late-night “client meeting” matched the date the LLC paperwork had begun. Another followed three days later. The dates didn’t prove who had signed what, but together they tightened something cold around her ribs.
Kevin had been busy while telling her he was busy.
At the airport, she found a seat near the windows and called Thomas. She wanted to hear his voice before she let herself decide what the dates meant.
The phone rang twice.
“Hello?”
Emily sat straighter. “Kevin?”
“Emily.” His voice sounded close, as if he were speaking from a quiet room. “Dad’s resting.”
“I called to talk to him.”
“He’s had a long day.”
It was the same smooth certainty Kevin used when he wanted a conversation to end before it began. Emily watched a baggage cart rattle past the glass.
“Can you ask him to call me when he wakes up?”
“I can. But there’s no reason to upset him tonight.”
“I didn’t say anything about upsetting him.”
A pause. Then a sigh meant to make her feel unreasonable.
“He doesn’t need family drama before tomorrow’s meeting,” Kevin said.
Emily’s grip tightened around the phone. “I’m not calling to start drama. I’m calling his number.”
“I’m telling you he’s resting.”
For a moment, she could hear something behind him—muffled voices, a television, perhaps a door closing. She couldn’t tell where he was or whether Thomas was even in the same room.
“Let him know I called.”
“I said I would.”
Kevin ended the call.
Emily lowered the phone. It was a small thing, a son answering his father’s phone. It might have been ordinary. But Kevin had not asked Thomas whether he wanted to talk. He had answered for him, then decided what his father needed to hear.
The empty seat beside Emily seemed suddenly important. Kevin had once been the person she expected to sit there. Now she couldn’t tell whether she missed him or the version of him she’d trusted.
Her phone rang again before she could stand.
Kevin.
“I’m arranging a car,” he said. “It’ll pick you up and bring you here.”
“Where are you?”
“At the house. Where else would I be?”
She looked down at the envelope in her lap. The dates pressed through the paper in her mind: the hotel, the filings, his nights away.
“I’m staying at a hotel tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired.”
“I can get you a room closer to the house.”
“I’ll choose my own.”
“Emily, don’t make this difficult. You don’t know the roads.”
“I can manage a car.”
His breath came through the speaker, controlled but sharp. “You’re six months pregnant. Let me help you.”
The words should have sounded kind. Instead, they landed like a hand on a locked door.
“I said I’ll arrange my own ride.”
A beat of silence.
“Fine,” he said. “Just tell me where you are.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She ended the call before he could turn that into another order.
At the hotel, Emily chose a room near the airport shuttle stop and booked a car for the morning herself. The route to Thomas’s house was already saved on her phone. Kevin didn’t need to choose where she slept, how she got there, or what time she left.
In the room, she set the envelope on the desk and placed the filing pages beside it. The hotel room smelled of detergent and stale heat. She pressed both hands against the desk until the slight tremor in her fingers eased.
Her baby shifted beneath her palm.
“I know,” she whispered. “I’m trying.”
She didn’t know whether she meant the baby or herself.
Then she looked at the papers again. The LLC name. The lien. Kevin listed as manager. Beside them, the investigator’s dates, each one another night Kevin had claimed work was keeping him away.
Emily picked up her phone and called Thomas again.
This time, it went straight to voicemail.
She left no message. If Kevin was screening his father’s calls, a voicemail might only give him another chance to answer for Thomas.
The minutes dragged. Emily showered, changed into soft clothes, and tried to eat the crackers from the hotel’s welcome basket. She managed two. Outside, headlights swept across the curtains and vanished.
Then an unfamiliar number appeared on her screen.
Emily stared at it before opening the message.
“This is Thomas. I’m using someone else’s phone. Please speak to me before Kevin does.”
She read it again, pulse quickening. Thomas had found a way around the phone Kevin had answered. He wanted to reach her privately.
Her thumb hovered over the call button.
Another message arrived.
Kevin: “I’m coming to collect you. Be ready in twenty minutes.”
May you like
A second vibration followed, the unfamiliar number again.
“Please, Emily. Before he gets here.”
