Chapter 16 - What Mom Took
We reached my parents’ house twenty-five minutes later.
The front door was unlocked.
The kitchen lights were on.
Mom’s car was gone.
Vanessa stood in the foyer in socks, coat thrown over pajamas.
“She left an hour ago.”
Dad moved past her.
“What did she take?”
“I don’t know. She was yelling into the phone. Then she went into your office.”
Dad ran upstairs.
I followed.
His office looked wrong immediately.
Desk drawers open.
File cabinet unlocked.
One shelf cleared.
Dad went to the wall safe behind a framed family photograph.
The safe was open.
Empty.
“What was in there?” I asked.
He stared.
“Trust copies. Property deeds. Company guarantees.”
“Originals?”
“Some.”
Vanessa whispered from the doorway.
“Why would she take them?”
Dad didn’t answer.
I did.
“Leverage.”
He turned.
“You don’t know that.”
“No. I know Mom.”
That hurt him.
Good.
Some truths should.
Vanessa held up her phone.
“I can see her location.”
Dad looked at her.
“What?”
“She shares location with me.”
“Where?”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Lake Geneva.”
I frowned.
Our parents had a small vacation property there.
Except they had told me it was sold.
Three years ago.
To cover “business taxes.”
Dad looked sick.
“You still have the lake house?”
Vanessa turned to him.
“You told Emily?”
“No.”
I stared at both of them.
“Who owns it?”
Dad sat down.
“Linda.”
Of course.
I laughed under my breath.
“The family trust paid company debt, the company paid Vanessa’s birthday party, and Mom kept a lake house nobody mentioned.”
Dad rubbed his face.
“It was inherited from her aunt.”
“Then why tell me it was sold?”
No answer.
I had reached the point where lies no longer shocked me.
They simply connected.
Grandma called David Klein while Dad contacted the police.
David advised against accusing Mom of theft until we confirmed ownership of the documents.
Then Vanessa said, “I’m going.”
Dad looked up.
“No.”
“She won’t listen to you.”
“She won’t listen to you either.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“She might listen to Emily.”
I almost laughed.
“Mom has never listened to me.”
“Exactly.”
I frowned.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You’re the one person she still thinks she can control. If you show up, she’ll stay long enough to argue.”
Dad stood.
“No one is driving to Wisconsin in this weather.”
I was already reaching for my coat.
“I am.”
He blocked the doorway.
“Emily.”
“Move.”
“You don’t know what state your mother is in.”
“That makes two of us.”
Vanessa grabbed her keys.
“I’m coming.”
Dad said, “Absolutely not.”
For the first time in my life, Vanessa and I answered him at the same time.
“Yes, we are.”
Twenty minutes later, we were on the highway north.
Snow hit the windshield in white streaks.
Vanessa stared ahead.
Then she said something I never expected.
“I hated you when we were kids.”
I turned toward her.
“What?”
May you like
She gripped the steering wheel tighter.
“Because I thought you were the favorite.”
