Chapter 20 - The Brother Behind Glass
Richard wore a county-issued jumpsuit.
Daniel had expected satisfaction seeing him behind reinforced glass.
There was none.
Richard picked up the phone.
Daniel did the same.
Neither spoke first.
Finally Richard smiled faintly.
“You look terrible.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“So do you.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“Where’s Clara?”
“Safe.”
“So she really came back.”
Daniel studied him.
“You knew she would eventually?”
“No.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
The admission came casually.
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“For three years?”
“Most of it.”
“You let me bury another woman.”
Richard looked away.
“I didn’t choose the woman.”
“You chose the lie.”
“Yes.”
No denial.
Some part of Daniel had expected Richard to keep performing innocence.
Instead jail seemed to have stripped strategy from the immediate conversation.
“Why?”
Richard leaned back.
“You know why.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Dad did not make you do this.”
“I didn’t say he did.”
“Then tell me.”
Richard stared through the glass.
“I built half that company.”
“You stole from it.”
“After.”
“After what?”
“After I understood I would never own what I built.”
“You inherited millions.”
Richard laughed.
“That’s exactly how you sound.”
“What does that mean?”
“You think money erases humiliation.”
Daniel thought of Clara on the sidewalk.
“No.”
“I don’t anymore.”
Richard’s expression changed.
Daniel continued.
“Tell me about Clara.”
“She found Rivergate.”
“So you staged her death.”
“I needed time.”
“You erased my wife.”
“She was supposed to leave for six months.”
Daniel’s anger surged.
“You buried somebody under her name.”
“I didn’t kill Melissa.”
Hearing him use the name was chilling.
“You knew who she was?”
“Later.”
“Did you care?”
Richard looked away.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Elaine?”
“I paid her.”
“Brennan?”
“Yes.”
“Owen?”
“Yes.”
“Kelly?”
“Later.”
“My mother?”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Mom made her own choices.”
“You lied to her.”
“She lied to me too.”
“About what?”
“Aster Ridge.”
Daniel nodded.
“She was trying to remove you.”
“She was trying to give strangers our father’s company.”
“She was trying to stop you stealing.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“Everybody suddenly becomes moral after benefiting from the system.”
“What system?”
“Dad moved money between projects for years.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
Richard saw it.
“You really didn’t know.”
“Explain.”
“Victor Carter wasn’t a saint.”
“I never said he was.”
“He paid inspectors.”
Daniel stared.
“He buried environmental reports.”
“Do you have proof?”
Richard smiled.
“Now you sound interested.”
Daniel understood the leverage attempt.
“What do you want?”
“My lawyer will discuss cooperation.”
“Then we’re done.”
Daniel moved to hang up.
Richard leaned forward.
“Wait.”
Daniel stopped.
“Clara moved money.”
“It’s intact.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“You found Susan.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know Clara broke rules too.”
Daniel stared.
“This isn’t about who followed every rule.”
“Convenient.”
“No.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“It’s about who built a lie that stole three years from a child.”
Richard looked away.
For the first time, shame appeared.
Maybe.
Daniel no longer trusted himself to name Richard’s feelings.
“Leo remembers you,” Daniel said.
Richard’s eyes flicked back.
“He asked whether you love him.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“What did you tell him?”
“That love doesn’t make hurt okay.”
Silence.
Daniel continued.
“I don’t know if you love us.”
“I do.”
“Then you should have acted like our lives mattered more than the company.”
Richard laughed once.
“You can say that because you got the company.”
There it was.
The old wound.
Daniel stood.
Richard pressed the phone harder to his ear.
“Danny.”
Daniel paused.
“Dad really did things you don’t know.”
“Then tell investigators.”
“You’ll lose everything.”
Daniel thought of Clara beneath the gray blanket.
Leo running.
Melissa’s grave.
His mother’s unsent email.
Eight point seven million stolen.
“Maybe everything that requires this much lying deserves to be lost.”
Richard stared.
Daniel hung up.
Outside the detention center, Rebecca waited.
“How was it?”
“He admitted knowing Clara was alive.”
“Directly?”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“Payments.”
“Was the call recorded?”
“Facility says yes.”
“That matters.”
Daniel nodded.
Then he told her Richard’s allegation about Victor.
Rebecca became serious.
“We investigate it.”
“You think it’s true?”
“I think refusing to look because you dislike the source would repeat your family’s pattern.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“Everybody around me became wise while I wasn’t looking.”
Rebecca ignored the compliment.
They ordered an independent historical audit.
Not because it helped their case against Richard.
Because truth could not stop at the person they wanted to blame.
If Victor had built corruption into Carter Development, Daniel would face it.
Even if it cost money.
Even if it damaged the family name.
Especially then.
That evening, Daniel told Clara.
She studied him.
“You’re willing to investigate your father?”
“Yes.”
“What if Richard is right?”
“Then Richard is right about that.”
Clara smiled faintly.
“Two months ago you couldn’t say that.”
“Two months ago you were dead.”
“Fair.”
They sat quietly.
Then Clara said, “I want to testify.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Against Richard?”
“If prosecutors ask.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
The honesty made him smile.
“But I want my fear to stop deciding everything.”
Daniel reached for her hand.
Clara let him take it.
Outside, snow began falling.
Three years earlier, Richard had made a dead woman’s identity disappear beneath Clara’s name.
Now every hidden name was returning.
Melissa.
Elaine.
Brennan.
Owen.
Kelly.
Victor.
Eleanor.
And Clara herself.
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