Chapter 4 - What Emily Had Been Checking
Jason refused to explain over the phone.
We met the next morning at a coffee shop in Blue Ash while Rosie stayed with my friend and neighbor, Claire, whom she had known since infancy.
Jason looked older than I remembered.
Divorce had taken something out of him.
So had Bethany.
He put a folder between us.
“Emily contacted me because I managed your parents’ rental property.”
I stared at him.
“My parents don’t own rental property.”
“They did.”
Past tense.
Jason explained that Margaret and Robert had purchased a small duplex in Norwood years earlier.
Emily discovered it accidentally while helping Mom prepare paperwork for a refinance.
The ownership itself wasn’t the problem.
The financing was.
My name appeared on an old loan guarantee.
I had never guaranteed anything.
Jason had noticed the irregularity when his company took over management.
He told Emily.
She began collecting records.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She asked me not to until she understood what happened.”
That sounded like Emily.
Careful.
Methodical.
Sometimes too protective.
“What happened?”
Jason pushed the folder toward me.
The duplex had been sold nine months after Emily died.
Most of the proceeds went toward paying debt.
But before the sale, my parents had apparently used a line of credit connected to it.
Several signatures associated with that borrowing looked like mine.
I felt sick.
Then Jason admitted why he had been at dinner.
Bethany contacted him three weeks earlier.
She said Margaret had found documents belonging to Emily and wanted Jason to identify which records could create legal problems.
“You agreed?”
“I wanted to see what they had.”
“You could’ve called me.”
“I should have.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I also thought Bethany might let me see something I’ve been trying to prove since our divorce.”
“What?”
Jason looked toward the window.
“Your sister says our marriage collapsed because I hid money.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised me.
“Because your mother was pressuring Bethany to move money through accounts in her name.”
The duplex wasn’t simply an old financial mistake.
It had affected Bethany’s marriage.
Emily had discovered it.
And my parents had hidden the evidence after she died.
Then Jason said something that made Rosie’s bruises suddenly feel connected to all of it.
“Yesterday Rosie walked into the basement while your mother and Bethany were showing me Emily’s files.”
May you like
Bethany hadn’t grabbed my daughter because of spilled juice.
She had grabbed her because Rosie had seen what they were trying to hide.
