Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be DeadMarcus stared at Tara as if he had never seen her before.
“How long have you known my brother was alive?”
Tara opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Maya stood frozen beside the bed, the old letter still trembling in her fingers.
Marcus took one step toward his wife.
“Tara.”
She looked down.
“Marcus, it isn’t what you think.”
His face tightened.
“My brother disappeared fifteen years ago.”
“I know.”
“You told me he was dead.”
“I never said that.”
“You let me believe it.”
Tara’s eyes filled with tears.
“You believed what everyone believed.”
Marcus laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“Everyone?”
He looked at Maya.
“Did you know?”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“Did your father ever tell you about him?”
“No.”
Marcus turned back to Tara.
“Then answer me.”
Tara gripped the phone in her hand.
“He contacted me years ago.”
Maya’s heart lurched.
“Why?”
Tara looked at her.
“Because he wanted something.”
Marcus’s voice dropped.
“What?”
Tara hesitated.
“He wanted money.”
Maya frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Tara snapped toward her.
“You weren’t there.”
“No,” Maya said. “I was a child.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
Marcus rubbed a hand over his face.
“What did he want money for?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“He never told me everything.”
Marcus stared at her.
“How many times did you speak to him?”
Tara looked away.
“Not many.”
“How many?”
“Marcus…”
“How many?”
Tara finally whispered, “Seven or eight.”
Maya’s mouth fell open.
“Seven or eight times?”
Tara didn’t answer.
Marcus did.
“You spoke to my missing brother eight times and never told me?”
“He made me promise.”
“A promise?”
“He said if I told you, he would disappear again.”
Marcus stepped back.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It was real.”
“Then why did you keep talking to him?”
Tara’s lips trembled.
“Because he knew things.”
“What things?”
She looked at Maya.
“About your family.”
Maya felt a chill run down her arms.
“What about my family?”
Tara shook her head.
“I don’t want to do this here.”
“You should have thought about that before you searched my room,” Maya said.
Tara glared at her.
“This has nothing to do with your bedroom.”
“It has everything to do with it.”
Marcus looked at the papers again.
The legal document had been folded and refolded so many times that the edges were soft.
“What is this?” he asked.
Maya took it from him.
“It’s a property transfer.”
Marcus frowned.
“What property?”
“The house.”
Silence.
Marcus looked up sharply.
“What?”
Maya pointed to a paragraph.
“It says the ownership of this house was supposed to be transferred before Mom died.”
Marcus stared at the page.
“I never signed anything like this.”
“You did.”
“No.”
“Your signature is right there.”
Marcus looked closer.
The room seemed to close in around him.
Maya watched his finger trace the signature.
Then he whispered, “That isn’t my signature.”
Tara suddenly stepped forward.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Maya looked at her.
“You said it was a misunderstanding.”
“It is.”
“You knew the signature was fake?”
“I suspected.”
Marcus’s head snapped toward her.
“You suspected?”
Tara looked frightened again.
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know who forged it.”
Maya looked at the document.
“Maybe your brother did.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ethan had been gone for years.”
Maya held up the letter.
“He wasn’t gone.”
Marcus looked at the handwriting.
His breathing changed.
“I know that handwriting.”
Tara whispered, “Marcus…”
He looked at her.
“That’s Ethan’s.”
Maya studied his face.
“You’re sure?”
Marcus nodded.
“I’d know it anywhere.”
He turned the letter over.
There was an old postmark.
The date was from twelve years ago.
Three years after Ethan had supposedly died.
Marcus stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
Maya answered quietly.
“The attic.”
“That box.”
“Yes.”
“What else was inside?”
“A photograph.”
“Of what?”
Maya crossed the room and opened her nightstand.
She pulled out a photograph she had kept hidden beneath a stack of notebooks.
She handed it to him.
Marcus looked down.
Then stopped breathing.
The photograph showed Ethan standing beside a woman.
A younger Tara.
Maya had seen the picture countless times.
But she had never known who the man standing next to her was.
Now she did.
Marcus turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
Three words.
You owe me.
His fingers tightened around the edges.
“Tara.”
She closed her eyes.
“It was before you and I were together.”
“How much before?”
“Two years.”
Marcus looked from the photograph to the letter.
“Were you dating Ethan?”
“No.”
“Did he love you?”
Tara’s eyes opened.
“That’s not the point.”
“It is to me.”
“No. You need to understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
Tara looked at Maya.
“I can’t.”
Maya stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know what your mother did.”
Marcus stared at her.
“What does Elena have to do with Ethan?”
Tara shook her head.
“You have no idea what was happening behind your back.”
Maya’s voice became quieter.
“My mother is dead.”
“And that doesn’t make her innocent.”
Marcus slammed his palm against the dresser.
“Do not talk about her like that.”
Tara flinched.
Maya watched her carefully.
“You knew my mother.”
Tara was silent.
“You knew her before Dad married you.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“We met.”
“Where?”
Tara looked at Marcus.
He nodded.
“Answer her.”
Tara inhaled slowly.
“At the bank.”
Maya frowned.
“The bank?”
“Your mother worked with financial accounts.”
“So?”
“So she discovered something.”
“What?”
Tara’s expression tightened.
“Money was being moved.”
Marcus frowned.
“Whose money?”
Tara shook her head.
“That’s the part I never understood.”
Maya stepped closer.
“Why was Mom investigating it?”
“She wasn’t investigating.”
“Then what?”
“She was covering it up.”
Marcus stared at his wife.
“That’s a lie.”
Tara looked at him.
“I saw the records.”
“Where?”
“In the same place you found them.”
The attic.
Maya looked toward the hallway.
“The box.”
Tara nodded.
“Yes.”
Marcus whispered, “You knew about the box.”
“Yes.”
“You knew those papers were there.”
“Yes.”
“And you let Maya find them?”
“I didn’t know she would.”
Maya suddenly understood something.
“Tara.”
“What?”
“You weren’t searching my room for your fifty dollars.”
Tara froze.
Marcus looked at Maya.
“What are you saying?”
Maya looked directly at Tara.
“You knew I had something.”
Tara’s expression went blank.
“That’s absurd.”
“You walked straight to my desk.”
“I was searching everywhere.”
“No.”
Maya shook her head.
“You went directly to the third drawer.”
Tara didn’t move.
“You knew exactly where the envelope was.”
Marcus turned to his wife.
“Is that true?”
Tara said nothing.
Maya’s pulse raced.
“You never cared about the fifty dollars.”
Tara’s face hardened.
“Be careful.”
“The money was an excuse.”
“Maya,” Marcus said quietly.
“No, Dad.”
She pointed toward the stairs.
“Think about it. She came home angry. She accused me immediately. Then she demanded we search my room.”
Marcus looked at Tara.
Tara’s silence was becoming louder than any confession.
Maya continued.
“She wanted to find these papers.”
Marcus looked at the black purse still hanging from Tara’s hand.
“Then where’s the fifty dollars?”
Tara looked down at the purse.
Marcus reached for it.
Tara stepped backward.
“No.”
“Give it to me.”
“Marcus, don’t.”
“Give me the purse.”
She held it tightly.
Maya watched her knuckles turn white.
Marcus took another step.
Tara suddenly threw the purse onto the bed.
It landed open.
Receipts spilled out.
A lipstick rolled across the blanket.
A small wallet fell onto the floor.
And then something else dropped from the inner pocket.
A folded yellow envelope.
Maya stared.
Tara went pale.
Marcus bent down and picked it up.
There was no name on it.
Only a handwritten date.
The same date as the property transfer.
Marcus slowly opened the envelope.
Inside was a bank deposit slip.
For fifty dollars.
Maya stared at it.
Then at Tara.
Tara’s lips parted.
“That isn’t mine.”
Marcus looked at the slip.
His eyes stopped on the account number.
Then he looked at Maya.
“That’s your mother’s account.”
Maya felt the blood drain from her face.
“My mother’s account?”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“But Elena closed that account before she died.”
He turned the slip over.
A handwritten message covered the back.
His face changed completely.
“What does it say?” Maya whispered.
Marcus didn’t answer.
He read it one more time.
Then he looked toward the bedroom door.
Because from downstairs came the sound of the front door opening.
Someone had entered the house.
Someone who should not have known they were being investigated.
A man’s voice rose from the hallway.
“Marcus?”
Maya’s heart stopped.
Tara backed away from the door.
Marcus stared at it.
The voice came again.
“I know you’re up there.”
May you like
And then the man said the one name that made Tara drop the yellow envelope from her hand.
“Tell Maya her mother never abandoned her.”
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