Chapter 17 - A.C.
Loretta knew an A.C.
She denied it for ten minutes.
Then Maya stopped asking.
Silence worked better.
Finally Loretta sat at the conference table and whispered, “April Collins.”
Maya had never heard the name.
“Who is she?”
Loretta rubbed her forehead.
“She worked with your mother.”
“At the hospital?”
“Yes.”
Angela had been a physical therapist before cancer forced her to stop working.
“What does April have to do with Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya stared.
Loretta looked away.
“You’re lying.”
“I know part of it.”
“What part?”
“Angela once suspected April was taking money from a patient-support fund.”
Maya frowned.
“That has nothing to do with Dad.”
“It might.”
Loretta exhaled.
“Robert volunteered with the foundation board.”
Maya felt another connection forming.
“Did Mom report April?”
“She was going to.”
“What happened?”
“She died before the internal review finished.”
Maya looked at the ledger entry again.
A.C. settlement.
Thirty thousand.
Eighteen months after Angela’s death.
“Dad paid April thirty thousand dollars.”
“Maybe.”
“With trust money?”
Evelyn confirmed it.
“Yes. The transfer came from the general trust investment account.”
Samuel’s face hardened.
“Robert did not disclose this in his voluntary statement.”
Maya called him.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Finally he texted.
Tomorrow. Please.
Maya replied:
No.
He called immediately.
“What is A.C.?”
Silence.
“Dad.”
“April Collins.”
“What settlement?”
Robert exhaled.
“It’s complicated.”
“Then make it simple.”
“She threatened to sue.”
“For what?”
“Defamation.”
“Against who?”
“Angela’s estate.”
Maya went still.
“What?”
“Your mother had accused her of financial misconduct.”
“Was Mom wrong?”
“No.”
“Then why pay her?”
“Because evidence was incomplete.”
Maya’s voice sharpened.
“You used Mom’s trust to settle a claim against Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Did Samuel know?”
“No.”
“You handled it yourself.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because April had something else.”
Maya gripped the phone.
“What?”
“A recording.”
Maya stared at Loretta.
“What recording?”
“Angela.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
“What did Mom say?”
Robert’s breathing became audible.
“She accused April of moving charity funds.”
“So?”
“She also said I had helped approve some reimbursements.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Again.
Money.
“What did you approve?”
“Expenses without proper documentation.”
“How much?”
“About fifteen thousand.”
“Did you take any?”
“No.”
“Then why was April threatening you?”
“She said if I supported the investigation, she would produce emails showing I signed off.”
“So you paid her.”
“I settled a threatened estate claim.”
“With trust money.”
“Yes.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“Dad, did Mom know you approved those payments?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“She was furious.”
Loretta whispered, “Angela never told me.”
Robert heard.
“She was embarrassed.”
Maya’s chest hurt.
“How many versions of Mom’s last year were you going to hide?”
Robert did not answer.
“Where is April now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“Maya.”
“You paid her thirty thousand dollars of trust money. She is now part of the accounting.”
Samuel gestured for Maya to stop making demands that could be construed as contact strategy.
He took the phone.
“Robert, do not contact Ms. Collins. Send me all records.”
After the call ended, Loretta looked shaken.
“I thought I knew what Angela went through.”
Maya stared at the table.
“She protected everybody’s image.”
“Especially yours.”
Maya looked up.
“What?”
Loretta’s eyes filled.
“Angela didn’t want you to become afraid of your father while she was dying.”
Maya felt tears rising.
“So she carried it alone.”
“No.”
Loretta shook her head.
“She carried too much alone. Not everything.”
“What do you mean?”
Loretta stood and walked toward the window.
“There’s something I should have told you years ago.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
“Please don’t say that sentence.”
Loretta almost smiled sadly.
“Your mother asked me to take you.”
“What?”
“If Robert became unstable after her death.”
Maya stared.
“She asked you to let me live with you?”
“Yes.”
“How old was I?”
“Eighteen.”
“I was legally an adult.”
“She knew.”
“Then what did she mean?”
“She meant emotionally.”
Loretta turned.
“She was afraid Robert would lean on you like a spouse. Make you manage his grief. Make you forgive things you shouldn’t because he was hurting.”
Maya thought back.
After Angela died, Robert called her every night at college.
He cried.
Asked whether she thought he had been a good husband.
Asked whether Angela had forgiven him.
Maya had spent months reassuring him while barely able to get out of bed herself.
Her stomach dropped.
“She predicted that too.”
Loretta nodded.
“Your mother knew him.”
Maya covered her face.
For years she had remembered those calls as closeness.
Now she saw another layer.
Robert had made his grieving daughter carry his guilt.
Loretta came beside her.
“I should have stepped in.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You pushed me away.”
“I was eighteen.”
“I know.”
“Everyone keeps saying that like it explains why every adult left me holding things.”
Loretta flinched.
Maya stood.
“I need air.”
She walked outside.
The October afternoon was cold.
She crossed the parking lot alone.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Then answered.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice said, “Is this Maya Carter?”
“Yes.”
“My name is April Collins.”
Maya stopped walking.
“How did you get my number?”
“Your father gave it to me years ago.”
Maya’s skin prickled.
April continued.
“I heard you’re investigating Angela’s trust.”
“Who told you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
April hesitated.
“Robert called me this morning.”
Maya went cold.
He had violated Samuel’s instruction almost immediately.
“What did he say?”
“He told me not to speak to you.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“Then why are you calling?”
April’s answer came quietly.
“Because your father didn’t pay me thirty thousand dollars to settle a lawsuit.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
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“What did he pay you for?”
“To keep something your mother gave me.”
