Chapter 6 - THE WEDDING RING
Rebecca held Mom's wedding ring in her palm.
“You have no idea how long I've waited for that ledger.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Stay where you are.”
Rebecca smiled.
“You still think uniforms make people powerful.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“They don't.”
“Then you remember me.”
“I remember your mother.”
Rebecca's smile disappeared.
“My mother was a better woman than I am.”
“Maybe.”
“She believed people could be redeemed.”
Daniel looked at me.
“She was wrong.”
Rebecca wasn't the cartoon villain I expected.
She looked exhausted.
Not cruel.
Desperate.
“I didn't steal your father's medication money,” she said.
I tightened my grip on the ledger.
“You benefited from it.”
“Yes.”
“That's enough.”
She nodded.
“I deserve that.”
“Where is my mother?”
Rebecca looked toward the station entrance.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“She took the money and ran.”
I didn't believe her.
Rebecca saw it.
“You think we're partners.”
“Aren't you?”
“No.”
She opened her hand.
Mom's wedding ring was scratched.
“There was one thing your mother never understood.”
“What?”
“Your father loved her.”
I stared.
“She knew that.”
“No.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“She knew he feared her.”
That distinction mattered.
Dad had stayed because he thought he could save her.
Mom had interpreted his patience as weakness.
Rebecca continued.
“She wanted control of the land. I wanted the financial network. Your mother wanted both.”
“And my identity?”
“You were collateral.”
The word made my stomach turn.
Rebecca explained the seven companies.
My signature had been used to guarantee loans.
If the companies collapsed, creditors would pursue me.
My veteran benefits, future earnings, and property could all be tied up.
The plan was simple.
Make me look like a careless business owner who had signed everything.
Then use my father's medical crisis to pressure him into transferring the land.
If he died before signing, Mom could claim he was mentally incapable.
I looked at Daniel.
“She planned to take everything.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“But Leo's daughter had one thing she didn't.”
“What's that?”
“Proof.”
I frowned.
“Who is Leo's daughter?”
She pointed at me.
“You.”
I almost laughed.
“Leo is my brother.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you call me Leo's daughter?”
Rebecca looked confused.
Then she realized.
“Sorry.”
She meant my father's daughter.
A small mistake.
But it revealed how deeply she had studied my family.
Then she took a photograph from her coat.
My father.
Twenty years earlier.
Standing beside a younger Mom.
And behind them was the property.
The land she had been trying to steal.
I recognized the building in the background.
It was not a house.
It was a medical clinic.
Dad had once helped build a veterans' rehabilitation center there.
The land had been intended for injured service members.
That explained everything.
Mom wasn't just stealing property.
She was taking land my father had dedicated to veterans.
I felt something inside me shift.
“This was Dad's project.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Your mother stopped it.”
Rebecca looked away.
“She convinced him that the land was too expensive to maintain.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Your father refused.”
“Then what happened?”
“He was threatened with foreclosure.”
Dad had nearly lost the land.
He had borrowed money.
Then he became sick.
And the medical bills grew.
Mom stepped in.
She told him she could handle the finances.
That was when the theft began.
I stared at the ledger.
Thirty-eight thousand dollars.
It wasn't the beginning.
It was only what I had noticed.
“How much did she steal?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“More than two million.”
I couldn't breathe.
“From Dad?”
“From the family.”
Daniel took the ledger.
“We have enough.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this ledger proves the network existed.”
She looked at me.
“It doesn't prove who controlled it.”
I understood.
The evidence was strong.
But not complete.
Then Rebecca removed Mom's wedding ring.
There was a tiny compartment inside.
A memory chip.
She handed it to me.
“Your mother recorded everything.”
I stared.
“Why would she?”
“Insurance.”
“Against you?”
“Against everyone.”
I inserted the chip into Daniel's laptop.
A recording appeared.
Mom's voice.
“We're almost finished.”
Rebecca's voice answered.
“Shayla's signature is enough.”
Mom said:
“What about her father?”
“He'll sign when he understands what happens if he doesn't.”
I closed my eyes.
Then Mom said something that made the room go silent.
“And if Shayla finds out?”
Rebecca answered:
“Then we make her look unstable.”
I remembered the party.
Military drama.
My mother had been preparing that story for months.
The kick had not been spontaneous.
It had been useful.
If I caused a scene, she could call me unstable.
If I protested the fraud, she could call me paranoid.
If I accused her, she could call it grief and trauma.
Everything had been designed to make me doubt myself.
Then another recording began.
Mom's voice again.
“Once the veteran is discredited, nobody will believe her.”
I looked at Daniel.
“They planned the attack.”
He nodded.
Rebecca suddenly looked toward the station entrance.
“We have to go.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother didn't run.”
I froze.
“What?”
Rebecca pointed to the ledger.
A new line had appeared.
A transaction dated that morning.
A transfer of the veterans' land.
The signature belonged to my father.
But he was still in the rehabilitation center.
Daniel looked at me.
“Someone forged it.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
I remembered Dad's words.
She was looking for the watch.
I looked at the memory card.
Then at the wedding ring.
Then at the forged transfer.
Suddenly I understood.
The watch wasn't evidence.
It was authorization.
And whoever had it could sign in Dad's name.
Rebecca's face went pale.
“Where is the watch?”
I looked down.
May you like
It was gone.
And from the parking lot outside came the sound of a car accelerating away.
