Chapter 11: The Man in the Photograph

I couldn't stop looking at the photograph.

The longer I stared at it, the more uneasy I became.

Camden stood beside Pepper. My mother was next to them. And between them was a man I had never seen before.

They were standing outside a lawyer's office.

No one was smiling.

Beck took the photograph from my hand and turned it over again.

"You were never the plan."

Those four words sat there like a warning.

I swallowed.

"I need to know who he is."

Beck nodded. "Then we'll find out."

I contacted the person who had sent me the photograph.

There was no response.

I tried again.

Nothing.

Then, nearly an hour later, my phone buzzed.

One message.

"Ask your mother about your father's estate."

My heart stopped.

My father.

For years, I had been told there was nothing left after he died.

My mother had always said the debts swallowed everything. The house. The savings. Even the small business he had built.

I had never questioned it.

I was too young.

Then I remembered the ring.

The one my mother had claimed was the only thing we had left of him.

The one she had tried to give Pepper.

I looked at Beck.

"I think my mother lied to me."

He didn't ask why.

"Let's get the records."

The next morning, we went to the county office.

The clerk searched my father's name.

Her expression changed.

"There's an estate file here."

I stared at her.

"An estate file?"

"Yes. It was settled several years ago."

"How much was in it?"

She hesitated.

"I can't disclose everything without authorization, but you're listed as a beneficiary."

My hands went cold.

"I'm what?"

She turned the screen toward me.

My name was there.

So was my mother's.

And another name.

Pepper.

I couldn't breathe.

"Why is she listed?"

The clerk frowned.

"That's something you'll have to ask the executor."

I looked at Beck.

His jaw had tightened.

"Who was the executor?" I asked.

The clerk gave me the name.

It was the same man from the photograph.

We left the office without speaking.

Outside, I stood on the sidewalk, staring at the passing cars.

All those years.

All those conversations about fairness.

All those times my mother had told me there wasn't enough.

There had been enough.

My father had left something behind.

And somehow, Pepper's name was on it.

Beck gently touched my shoulder.

"Ro."

I looked at him.

"I don't understand."

"Then we'll keep looking until you do."

That afternoon, we found the lawyer's office from the photograph.

The receptionist recognized my name immediately.

"Mr. Hart has been expecting you."

My stomach dropped.

"He knew I would come?"

"He said you would eventually ask questions."

We were led into a quiet office.

The man from the photograph stood when we entered.

He looked older than I remembered, though I had never actually met him.

"Rowan," he said.

"I owe you an explanation."

I sat down.

"Start with my father."

He nodded.

"Your father didn't die penniless."

My fingers curled around the edge of the chair.

"Then why was I told he did?"

"Because your mother requested that the estate remain private until you turned twenty-five."

I stared at him.

"Why?"

He looked uncomfortable.

"Because she believed you were too young to handle it. But there was another condition."

"What condition?"

"The estate was placed in a trust. You were the primary beneficiary."

My heart pounded.

"Primary?"

"Yes."

He opened a file.

"Your father wanted to make sure you had financial security regardless of what happened in the family."

Tears burned behind my eyes.

My father had thought about me.

Even when I was too young to understand what he had done, he had thought about me.

Then I saw another document.

Pepper's name.

"Why is she involved?"

The lawyer hesitated.

"Because your mother attempted to alter the trust several months ago."

Beck leaned forward.

"Attempted?"

"She couldn't legally transfer the primary assets. But she tried to use the estate to secure a property for Pepper and Camden."

The room went silent.

I felt sick.

"So the house..."

"Was purchased using money connected to the estate."

My vision blurred.

Camden's nursery.

Pepper's house.

Their carefully planned life.

My father's money.

My inheritance.

They hadn't just stolen my fiancé.

They had been building their future with something that belonged to me.

I stood abruptly.

"I want everything."

The lawyer looked at me.

"Everything?"

"Every document. Every transaction. Every signature. I want to know exactly what they did."

He nodded.

"You have the right to know."

As we walked out, my phone rang.

My mother.

I stared at her name.

Then I answered.

"What did you do with Dad's money?"

There was a long silence.

When she finally spoke, her voice was no longer angry.

It was frightened.

"Who told you?"

That was all I needed to hear.

I closed my eyes.

"So it's true."

"Rowan, please listen to me."

"You told me there was nothing."

"I was trying to protect the family."

"No."

My voice shook.

"You were protecting Pepper."

She started crying.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way."

"What wasn't?"

She didn't answer.

I heard another voice in the background.

Camden.

"Give me the phone."

My mother's breathing stopped.

Then Camden spoke.

"Rowan, don't do anything stupid."

I laughed bitterly.

"I'm finally doing something smart."

"You don't understand what you're getting yourself into."

"Then explain it."

Silence.

Again.

Every time I asked for the truth, they went silent.

I hung up.

Beck looked at me.

"What now?"

I slipped the documents into my bag.

"Now they find out exactly what happens when the person they've been taking from finally asks for everything back."