“Then why?”
He turned.
“Because I needed someone I could trust.”
I almost laughed.
Trust?
He had just married a woman who had agreed to marry him largely because of his money.
“I don’t think you understand,” I whispered.
“I understand perfectly.”
He walked to the desk and opened a drawer.
Then he took out an old photograph.
He held it toward me.
I took it.
And everything inside me went cold.
It was a picture of me.
Not a recent picture.
I was maybe seventeen.
I was standing outside my high school, carrying a backpack, looking down at the ground.
Beside me was Chloe.
“How do you have this?”
Arthur’s expression didn’t change.
“I’ve been watching you for years.”
I dropped the photograph onto the table.
“What?”
“Not watching you in the way you’re thinking. I wasn’t following you. I had someone keeping an eye on your circumstances.”
“Why?”
Arthur sighed.
“Because of your father.”
My blood ran cold.
I hadn’t heard that man’s name spoken in years.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then what does he have to do with this?”
Arthur sat down.
“Your father wasn’t the man you thought he was.”
I shook my head.
“You don’t know anything about him.”
“I know he worked for my company.”
I froze.
Arthur continued.
“Twenty-two years ago, your father was the financial director of one of my companies. He discovered something he wasn’t supposed to discover.”
“What?”
“Someone had been stealing millions.”
I stared at him.
“And my father found out?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Arthur looked away.
“He tried to expose them.”
A strange pressure built inside my chest.
“My father left us when I was young. My mother told me he was a coward. She said he ran away because he didn’t want responsibility.”
Arthur’s voice softened.
“That was a lie.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“What are you saying?”
“Your father didn’t abandon you.”
Arthur reached into the drawer again.
This time, he pulled out a thin brown envelope.
He placed it on the table.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Inside were documents.
Bank records.
Legal papers.
Photographs.
And finally, a letter.
My father’s handwriting.
I knew it immediately.
My eyes blurred before I even finished the first sentence.
My little girl,
If you’re reading this, then I failed to come home.
I covered my mouth.
Arthur said nothing.
I kept reading.
I need you to know that leaving you was never my choice.
I discovered that someone inside the company was stealing money. When I threatened to expose them, they threatened your mother and you.
I was told that if I went to the police, you would both disappear.
So I made the only choice I thought might keep you alive.
The letter shook between my fingers.
Tears fell onto the paper.
“No…”
I read the final lines.
There is only one person I trust to protect you if something happens to me.
Arthur.
I looked up.
Arthur was watching me.
“You knew my father?”
“He was my friend.”
“Then why didn’t you find me?”
His eyes filled with something I had never seen there before.
Regret.
“I tried.”
“Not hard enough.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Arthur didn’t defend himself.
“You’re right.”
That hurt more.
I wiped my face.
“Then why did you let me believe I was unwanted?”
“I didn’t.”
“My whole life I thought my father abandoned me!”
“I know.”
“And you knew the truth?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
I turned toward the door.
“I want to leave.”
Arthur’s voice stopped me.
“You can’t.”
I slowly turned around.
“What?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
He looked toward the windows.
“The people who threatened your father never stopped looking for what he took.”
