Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER NOBODY MENTIONED
Teresa stared at Wesley.
“You have a brother?”
“No.”
His answer came too quickly.
Then he looked at the paper again.
“At least I didn’t think I did.”
Chloe stood.
“Could Daniel be someone else?”
Wesley shook his head slowly.
“My father’s name was Daniel.”
Teresa exhaled.
“That seems more likely.”
“No.”
He pointed to the sentence.
“Ruth knows where Daniel is.”
His expression darkened.
“My father never disappeared.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died when I was nineteen.”
The answer carried no grief.
Teresa recognized that tone.
Hospice had taught her there were deaths people mourned and deaths people survived.
Wesley folded the note carefully.
“My mother left him when I was six. We went back once. She never returned again.”
“Was he violent?”
Wesley’s gaze met hers.
“Yes.”
Chloe whispered, “Wesley…”
He ignored her sympathy.
“What I don’t understand is why she would hide this inside a rosary.”
Teresa picked up the bus ticket.
“Maybe because she was afraid someone would find the box.”
Wesley looked at the date again.
Teresa calculated.
“You were born already.”
“I was four.”
“Then maybe Grandma helped her leave him.”
“That part makes sense.”
“The Daniel part doesn’t.”
Chloe rubbed her arms.
“I remember something.”
Teresa looked at her.
“Grandma used to send birthday cards to someone named Danny.”
“When?”
“When we were kids.”
Teresa frowned.
“I don’t remember that.”
“You were usually outside with her while she gardened. I used to help put stamps on envelopes.”
Chloe gave a humorless smile.
“One of the few jobs I was trusted with.”
“What address?”
“I don’t know.”
“City?”
“Maybe Erie.”
Wesley pulled out his phone, then stopped.
Teresa saw the instinct.
One call and dozens of people would start searching.
He put the phone away.
“My mother hid this for forty years. I’m not turning it into an investigation until I understand what she wanted.”
Teresa was surprised.
Chloe was too.
Then the bridal-suite door opened.
Richard stood there.
Wesley’s face hardened.
“I told you to stay outside.”
“This is my daughter’s wedding.”
Richard looked at Chloe.
“Guests are leaving.”
Chloe glanced toward the clock.
The ceremony should have started twenty minutes ago.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Get married.”
Wesley looked at her.
Chloe couldn’t meet his eyes.
Richard stepped closer.
“Whatever family drama Teresa dragged in here can be handled tomorrow.”
Teresa almost answered.
Chloe beat her to it.
“She didn’t drag anything here.”
Richard stared at his older daughter.
Chloe’s voice shook, but she continued.
“You cropped her out.”
“That photograph is not the issue.”
“You stole Grandma’s note.”
Richard froze.
Teresa watched his face.
There.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“You did,” she said.
Richard’s shoulders dropped slightly.
“I removed it.”
“Why?”
“Because Ruth had no business filling your heads with old Hale family problems.”
Wesley’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You read it?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
Richard looked at him.
“You don’t want to know.”
“That decision stopped belonging to you the moment you stole it.”
Richard glanced at Teresa.
Something almost like shame passed across his face.
“Your grandmother made me promise.”
Teresa laughed softly.
“Interesting. Grandma trusted you with a promise?”
His eyes flashed.
“She was still my mother.”
“And I was still your daughter.”
That landed.
Richard looked away first.
“Ruth helped Nora leave her husband.”
Wesley said nothing.
“She put Nora and Wesley on a bus to Pittsburgh. Nora stayed with relatives for a few weeks. Ruth hid some money for her.”
“What about Daniel?” Teresa asked.
Richard rubbed his jaw.
“There was a baby.”
Nobody moved.
Wesley’s face became stone.
“What baby?”
Richard looked toward him.
“Your mother was pregnant.”
Wesley gripped the back of a chair.
Teresa stepped closer without thinking.
He didn’t look at her.
Richard continued.
“She was afraid Daniel Hale would find her. Ruth helped her disappear long enough to give birth.”
“Boy or girl?”
“A boy.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What happened to him?”
“I don’t know.”
Wesley’s voice sharpened.
“You just said Ruth knew.”
“She did. I didn’t.”
“Then why take the letter?”
Richard’s answer came after a long pause.
“Because of Teresa.”
She frowned.
“Me?”
“When Ruth was dying, she was furious with me.”
“That narrows nothing down.”
“She said there were things she intended you to have. Things that would prove what kind of man I’d been.”
Teresa’s stomach tightened.
“What kind of man were you?”
Richard’s face reddened.
“I was trying to keep this family together.”
“No. Tell me.”
Linda appeared in the doorway behind him.
“Richard.”
He turned.
She looked devastated.
“Tell her about the money.”
Teresa went cold.
“What money?”
Richard closed his eyes.
Linda stepped into the room.
“The college fund.”
“I kept it.”
Teresa stared at him.
“What?”
“You didn’t sign the transfer.”
“I know.”
“So Grandma’s account stayed yours.”
Teresa’s heart pounded.
“I used it for nursing school.”
“Most of it.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
She remembered every statement.
Every tuition payment.
Every dollar.
Richard looked sick.
“Before graduation, I withdrew eight thousand.”
“That account required Grandma’s authorization.”
“I had it.”
Teresa stared at him.
“For what?”
He said nothing.
Linda answered.
“To pay a debt.”
Richard snapped, “Linda.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“No more.”
She looked at Teresa.
“Your father’s business was failing. We were behind on the mortgage. He borrowed money.”
Teresa felt Wesley become very still beside her.
“From whom?”
Linda’s eyes shifted toward him.
Richard spoke quickly.
“It wasn’t Wesley.”
Wesley’s voice was flat.
“I was eighteen.”
“It was his father.”
Daniel Hale.
The name seemed to settle over everyone.
Teresa looked at Richard.
“You took Grandma’s money to pay Daniel Hale?”
“Eight thousand dollars. I put most of it back.”
“Most?”
Richard’s face tightened.
“That’s why Ruth hated me afterward.”
Teresa’s mind raced.
The pressure to transfer the entire fund to Chloe.
The urgency.
Family invests where the return is.
It had never been only about Chloe’s boutique.
“You needed the rest.”
Richard said nothing.
Teresa felt nauseated.
“You were going to use Chloe’s business as the excuse.”
“I was trying to save our house.”
“You threw me out because I wouldn’t unknowingly pay your debt.”
“I was desperate.”
“So was I.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“I was eighteen.”
Silence.
Wesley looked at Richard with something colder than anger.
“My father lent you money?”
Richard nodded.
“And when did you repay him?”
Richard’s face changed.
Wesley saw it.
“So you didn’t.”
“No.”
“What happened to the debt?”
Richard swallowed.
“Your mother came to see me.”
Wesley frowned.
“When?”
“After your father died.”
Richard looked toward the blue scarf.
“She brought the original note Ruth had written about the debt.”
“And?”
“She tore it up.”
Wesley’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
Richard looked directly at Teresa.
“Because Nora said Ruth had already paid the Hale family more than enough.”
Teresa’s pulse jumped.
“With what?”
Richard looked at the rosary.
May you like
Then at Wesley.
“By raising her second son.”
