Chapter 10 - My Mother’s First Call
My mother had made six calls after leaving the engagement party.
The first was not to Sienna.
It was not to a lawyer.
It was not to a friend.
It was to Wesley Kane.
The call lasted seven minutes.
Her second call was to Sienna.
Her third was to a number tied to a Northstar shell company.
When Hsu showed me the records, something inside me went quiet.
Not broken.
Finished.
There is a point where pain stops asking to be understood.
It starts asking for distance.
We met Mom at her attorney’s office that afternoon.
She looked smaller than she had at the party.
No makeup. Hair pulled back. Hands wrapped around a paper cup she never drank from.
Her attorney warned everyone that she was cooperating voluntarily.
Mom looked at me.
“Is Sienna alive?”
“We believe so.”
She closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
I sat across from her.
“Who did you call?”
Her lawyer interrupted. “Olivia—”
“Let her answer.”
Mom stared at the table.
“Kane.”
“Why?”
“Because I panicked.”
“About the slap?”
“No.”
That answer hurt more than I expected.
She rubbed her thumb over the cup seam.
“About the transfer.”
“So you knew.”
“I knew Sienna was trying to move money.”
“My money.”
“Your father’s money.”
“He legally left it to me.”
“He left everything to you because he trusted you more.”
There it was.
Years of resentment in one sentence.
I leaned forward.
“Did you forge my signature?”
“No.”
“Did you know Sienna had a fake death certificate?”
Mom’s face crumpled.
“No. I swear.”
Hsu asked, “Why did you call the Northstar number?”
Mom looked terrified.
“I thought they could stop Sienna.”
My stomach turned.
“You thought the people she owed money to could help her?”
“They told me they were investors.”
“What did you tell them?”
She hesitated.
Mason’s voice was cold. “Mrs. Bennett.”
Mom looked at him.
“What did you tell them?” he repeated.
She started crying.
“Years ago, they asked questions about your father’s work. I didn’t know it was important.”
I felt the room shrink.
“What questions?”
“Travel. Meetings. Names of people who called the house. I thought it was business research.”
“You gave strangers information about Dad’s schedule?”
“They paid Kane for consulting. He said it was legal.”
I stood.
My chair scraped backward.
Mom reached for me.
“Olivia, I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“I was trying to help us.”
“No. You were trying to feel important.”
She flinched.
I walked toward the door.
Then she said the one thing that stopped me.
“Your father found out.”
I turned.
Mom was shaking.
“He found out three weeks before he died.”
My throat tightened.
“What happened?”
“He said he was going to report everything.”
“And then?”
She looked at Hsu.
Then at me.
“The night before his last flight, someone came to our house.”
“Who?”
“I never saw his face.”
“What did he want?”
Mom whispered, “He wanted your father to keep quiet.”
I could barely speak.
“And Dad?”
“He refused.”
Her lawyer touched her arm.
She ignored him.
“There’s more,” she said.
May you like
I stared at her.
“Your father’s death was not an accident.”
