Chapter 3
The bank opened Henry Walker’s safe-deposit box the next morning.
Detective Collins obtained a warrant.
David, Natalie, and I were allowed to watch as a bank employee carried the metal box into a private room.
Evelyn had maintained the annual fee for nine years.
That alone felt strange.
Inside were no jewels.
No cash.
Only documents.
David lifted the first envelope.
PROPERTY SETTLEMENT — MITCHELL-WALKER DEVELOPMENT GROUP.
I stared at him.
“My father knew your father?”
Apparently much better than either of us realized.
Twenty-five years earlier, Robert Mitchell and Henry Walker had been business partners.
They purchased land together.
Built apartment complexes.
Invested in medical-office properties.
Then their partnership ended.
My father never mentioned Henry.
David never knew Henry had owned anything valuable.
Natalie unfolded another document.
“Look.”
A photograph slipped out.
Our fathers stood together in front of a construction site.
Behind them was Evelyn.
Much younger.
Holding a champagne glass.
I felt cold.
“Evelyn knew my father.”
David’s expression hardened.
“She said she met your family at our wedding.”
That had been another lie.
Collins opened a ledger.
It showed distributions from multiple properties.
Half to Robert.
Half to Henry.
Then suddenly Henry’s share stopped.
Twenty-three years earlier.
“What happened?” David asked.
Collins turned another page.
There was a signed transfer.
Henry supposedly sold his entire interest to Robert for one dollar.
David laughed.
“My father would never do that.”
The signature looked strange.
Natalie recognized it immediately.
“That isn’t Dad’s.”
I looked at her.
“You’re sure?”
“He signed birthday cards like a doctor writing during an earthquake. This is perfectly neat.”
Forgery.
Another one.
Collins photographed the paper.
Then I found a letter.
It was addressed to David.
Never opened.
The handwriting belonged to Henry.
David,
If anything happens to me, do not believe your mother when she says I lost the company.
David’s hands started shaking.
He kept reading.
Robert did not steal from me. Evelyn forced a transfer after learning something that could destroy both families.
I looked toward Collins.
“What could destroy both families?”
The next paragraph had been torn away.
Someone had physically removed half the letter.
Evelyn.
Who else?
Natalie found another envelope.
DNA RESULTS.
Nobody moved.
David opened it.
Two names appeared.
Henry Walker.
Michael Mitchell.
My brother.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.97%.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
David stared at me.
“Michael is my father’s son?”
I grabbed the report.
It couldn’t be true.
Michael was three years older than me.
My mother had always said Robert was his father.
But the DNA report said otherwise.
Natalie sat down.
“Dad had a child with Sarah’s mother?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
Then another terrible possibility hit me.
Maybe Evelyn had been involved.
Maybe the affair was different.
We searched the box again.
A second DNA report appeared.
This one showed Robert Mitchell and David Walker.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.98%.
David stared at it.
I stopped breathing.
My father was David’s biological father.
And David’s father was Michael’s.
Our families hadn’t simply shared a business.
Somehow, our fathers had raised each other’s sons.
Then Collins found a handwritten note beneath the reports.
One sentence.
Evelyn must never learn which child controls the trust.
I looked at David.
May you like
“She already knows.”
And I suddenly understood why she had been willing to hurt Lily to get it.
