Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF A DAUGHTER
“Catherine demanded the waterfront,” Isabella said.
Nathan stared at her.
“What waterfront?”
“The shipping property Father refused to sell. The old eastern docks.”
Nathan's face hardened.
“Our family still owns those docks.”
“I know.”
“They've been operating for decades.”
“I know that too.”
Rebecca looked between them.
“What does any of that have to do with me?”
Isabella lowered her eyes.
“Catherine wanted Father to sign control of the property over to a company she secretly owned. When he refused, she used your location to pressure him.”
Nathan walked toward the window.
The eastern docks were visible from the mansion.
Warehouses.
Shipping cranes.
Fishing boats.
The businesses he'd spent his adult life managing.
He turned.
“Father never transferred ownership.”
“No,” Isabella said. “But he gave Catherine something almost as valuable.”
“What?”
“Access to the shipping contracts.”
Nathan went still.
For years, he'd believed the Bennett Foundation's involvement in the family companies was merely charitable.
Now he understood why Catherine had maintained such close relationships with the Carusos.
Rebecca pressed her palms against the table.
“So my life was used to pressure our father into a business arrangement?”
Isabella nodded.
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“Twenty-nine years of lies over shipping contracts?”
“It began that way,” Isabella said.
“What does that mean?”
“Catherine eventually made more money from the arrangement than she'd expected. She couldn't afford for the original records to surface.”
Nathan asked, “And Father?”
“He spent years trying to separate the family businesses from her foundation.”
“Why didn't he tell me?”
Isabella looked at him.
“Because he was ashamed.”
Nathan shook his head.
“He left me those companies.”
“Yes. And he left you the danger attached to them.”
Silence filled the room.
For the first time, Nathan's inheritance looked less like a gift and more like an unfinished responsibility.
I stood beside Dorothy, watching her struggle to understand the man she'd cared for during his final years.
She loved Nathan's father.
But love didn't erase the decisions he'd made.
“There's something else,” Dorothy said.
Everyone turned.
“Your father asked me to keep the silver locket because he feared Catherine would take it if she found it in his belongings.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Why give it to you?”
“Because I refused to sign Rebecca's transfer papers. He said that made me the only person who hadn't helped conceal her.”
Isabella lowered her head.
Dorothy's voice trembled.
“I thought he wanted me to protect a memory.”
She looked toward Rebecca.
“I didn't realize he was asking me to protect a person.”
Rebecca reached for her hand.
“You couldn't have known.”
Dorothy began crying.
For a moment, the room softened.
Then Nathan turned toward Marco.
“I want an independent audit of every contract connected to the Bennett Foundation.”
Marco nodded.
“And the bank key?”
Nathan looked at it.
“We need to identify the bank.”
Rebecca studied the scratched numbers.
“Fourteen and seventeen.”
I remembered the drawing beneath the roses.
The hospital rooms.
The mothers.
Then I remembered something else.
“Elise wrote a train ticket,” I said.
Nathan looked toward me.
“She wrote the accountant's name on it.”
“Thomas Avery.”
“Yes. What if he helped her secure the box?”
Marco immediately checked the old charitable account records Nathan had preserved.
Thomas Avery had retired years earlier.
But he hadn't disappeared.
He was listed as a volunteer treasurer at a small Boston historical society.
Nathan called the society directly.
Thomas answered.
When Nathan introduced himself, the older man's voice became cautious.
“I wondered whether I'd ever hear from a Caruso again.”
Nathan didn't waste time.
“Did you know Elise Bennett?”
A long silence.
Then Thomas said, “I did.”
“We found a key.”
Another silence.
“Does it have the letters E.B.?”
“Yes.”
Thomas exhaled.
“Then Elise kept her promise.”
Nathan gripped the phone.
“What promise?”
“That if anything happened to her, somebody would eventually find the records.”
Rebecca leaned closer.
“Where's the bank?”
Thomas hesitated.
“The account isn't with a bank anymore.”
Nathan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“The original box was closed after the institution merged. I arranged for its contents to be transferred to a secure records vault owned by the historical society.”
Nathan looked toward Marco.
“Is the material still there?”
“Yes.”
“Can we collect it?”
“Not without discussing what it contains.”
Nathan's patience was wearing thin.
“Mr. Avery, my sister has spent twenty-nine years believing her family was dead.”
Thomas's voice softened.
“I know. And I'm very sorry.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“Then please help me.”
Something changed in the man's voice.
“Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“I knew your mother.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Did she love me?”
Thomas took a moment before answering.
“More than you can imagine.”
Rebecca began crying.
Thomas continued.
“Come tomorrow morning. Bring the key and Dorothy Hayes.”
Dorothy looked startled.
“Why me?”
“Because you were the only nurse who refused the transfer. Your name appears in the records.”
Nathan agreed.
But before ending the call, Thomas asked a question.
“Is Isabella with you?”
Nathan looked toward his sister.
“Yes.”
“Then tell her something.”
“What?”
“Tell her Elise didn't blame her.”
Isabella covered her mouth.
Nathan stared at the phone.
“How do you know that?”
Thomas's voice trembled.
“Because Elise told me.”
The room went completely silent.
Rebecca moved closer.
“Elise is alive?”
Thomas paused.
“Yes.”
Isabella sank into a chair.
Nathan looked at the photograph of the teenage girls.
“Where is she?”
Thomas answered carefully.
“She lives outside Boston. She has spent many years trying to recover from what happened to her.”
Rebecca whispered, “Does she know about me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why hasn't she come forward?”
Thomas's voice hardened with sadness.
“Because Catherine convinced her that speaking would destroy the people she was trying to save.”
Nathan looked toward Isabella.
His sister was crying silently.
Thomas continued.
“Elise is willing to talk now. But she has one condition.”
“What condition?”
“She wants to meet Isabella alone first.”
Isabella lifted her head.
“Me?”
Thomas heard her.
“Yes, Isabella. She has something she has wanted to return to you for twenty-nine years.”
Isabella could barely speak.
“What?”
Thomas took a slow breath.
“The letter you wrote the night Catherine took her away.”
Isabella's hands began shaking.
“I burned that letter.”
“No,” Thomas said.
“Elise kept it.”
May you like
Then his voice dropped.
“And Isabella, she says the last sentence proves Catherine lied to both of you about who ordered Rebecca's disappearance.”
