Chapter 2 - THE HANDBAG THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE RETURNED
“Put that handbag on the table, Lena.”
Evelyn Mercer's voice was so calm that it frightened me more than shouting would have.
Lena Cross took one step backward.
Dominic moved between them.
“Mother, this has nothing to do with you.”
Evelyn looked at her son.
“That's what your father said eighteen years ago.”
The room went silent.
I was still standing beside the dinner I'd prepared for a husband who had spent the evening with another woman.
Five months.
That was how long he'd been cheating.
And somehow, in less than ten minutes, his betrayal had become the second-most disturbing thing happening in my dining room.
“Evelyn,” I said, “please tell me what's going on.”
She extended one trembling hand toward Lena.
“The bag.”
Lena hesitated.
Then she placed it on the mahogany table.
It was beautiful.
Dark brown leather. Brass hardware. A distinctive compass-shaped clasp.
But Evelyn wasn't looking at the clasp.
She was looking at the handle.
Near its base, someone had repaired a small tear with blue thread.
Evelyn touched the stitches.
“I did this myself.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“Eighteen years ago. At my kitchen table.”
Lena swallowed.
“My mother never told me that.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
And when she opened them, I saw something I'd never witnessed in twelve years of marriage.
My mother-in-law looked ashamed.
“Your mother is June Cross.”
Lena nodded.
Dominic's expression changed.
I looked between them.
“Who's June Cross?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Dominic said, “She worked in our accounting department years ago.”
“That isn't the whole story,” Evelyn replied.
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“She was fired for stealing.”
Lena suddenly laughed.
It was a terrible sound.
“My mother spent eighteen years trying to prove she wasn't a thief. And you still say it like it's a fact.”
“Company money disappeared,” Dominic said.
“Then where did it go?”
He didn't answer.
I looked at Evelyn.
“Why do you recognize her handbag?”
“Because I gave it to June the night she came to me with something that could have destroyed this company.”
My stomach tightened.
“What something?”
Evelyn glanced toward Dominic.
“Evidence that money was being taken from our drivers' retirement accounts.”
Dominic stared at her.
“That's impossible.”
“Is it?”
“We were audited.”
“By people your father hired.”
For the first time since entering the house, Dominic seemed genuinely uncertain.
Lena opened her handbag.
Inside were ordinary things.
A wallet.
Lipstick.
House keys.
A folded pharmacy receipt.
Then she removed a small photograph.
The picture was old, its corners curled.
Three people stood outside a Mercer warehouse.
A younger Dominic.
A dark-haired woman I assumed was June.
And a broad-shouldered man holding a clipboard.
I recognized him.
Daniel Rourke.
Dominic's operations director.
A man who'd attended our wedding, brought flowers when I was sick, and called me family.
“Why are you carrying this?” Dominic asked.
Lena looked directly at him.
“Because someone broke into my apartment tonight looking for it.”
I remembered Dominic's explanation.
Lena's apartment had been broken into.
I'd assumed it was an excuse to bring his mistress into our home.
Now I wasn't so sure.
“Did you call the police?” I asked.
Lena shook her head.
“Daniel told me not to.”
Dominic turned sharply.
“Daniel knows about the break-in?”
Lena hesitated.
“He knows about more than that.”
My husband gripped the back of a chair.
“Explain.”
Lena looked at me.
For the first time, she seemed unable to meet my eyes.
“Daniel introduced me to Dominic five months ago.”
I stared at her.
“He introduced you?”
She nodded.
“He knew who my mother was. He knew what I wanted. And he said the only way to find the truth was to get close to the Mercer family.”
I felt sick.
“So you slept with my husband?”
Her eyes filled.
“That wasn't how it was supposed to happen.”
“But it happened.”
“Yes.”
“And you came into my home knowing exactly who I was.”
She lowered her head.
I turned away before she could apologize.
I wasn't ready to hear it.
Evelyn picked up the photograph.
Then she turned it over.
Something had been written on the back in faded blue ink.
Ask about the empty truck.
Dominic read the words.
His face hardened.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother's belongings,” Lena whispered.
He looked toward his mother.
“Why would June write that?”
Evelyn didn't respond.
I stepped forward.
“Dominic, you need to stop protecting whatever this is.”
He looked at me.
For a second, I saw the man I'd married.
Then his eyes moved toward the photograph.
And he said something that made Lena grip the table.
“Because I was the one who signed June Cross's termination papers.”
Lena stared at him.
“You fired my mother?”
“Yes.”
“After she told you someone was stealing from the drivers?”
Dominic's silence answered before his words did.
“I thought she was lying.”
Lena began crying.
Evelyn lowered herself into a chair.
And I realized the woman my husband had been sleeping with wasn't simply trying to steal him.
She had entered our family looking for the truth about something he'd done eighteen years earlier.
Then Evelyn looked at the photograph again.
“Dominic,” she said quietly, “June didn't write that message.”
He frowned.
“How do you know?”
“Because that's your father's handwriting.”
I watched Dominic's face change.
His father had been dead for ten years.
May you like
Evelyn turned the photograph toward us.
“And if Arthur knew that truck was empty, then he knew exactly where the missing money went.”
Related Stories
