Chapter 10 - Michael Wanted More Than Justice
Michael admitted taking a copy.
“I needed leverage.”
Richard stared.
“Against Jonathan?”
“Yes.”
“Why not give it to police?”
“Because police didn’t protect Anna thirty years ago.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to run your own investigation.”
Michael nodded.
“No.”
Richard appreciated the honesty but remained angry.
“What did you want?”
“The blue box.”
“You already had it.”
“Not all of it.”
Charles’s blue box contained a false bottom.
Michael discovered it years later.
Inside was a list of account numbers.
He could not access them without a second code.
Jonathan had the code.
Michael planned to trade the recording for it.
Richard stared.
“So while everyone thought you were chasing justice, you were chasing
money.”
“Not for me.”
“For who?”
“Anna and Vanessa.”
Vanessa looked stunned.
Michael believed the accounts held money Charles diverted from Thomas.
He wanted to recover it for Thomas’s daughters.
Noble purpose.
Dangerous method.
Richard shook his head.
“You broke into my house.”
“Yes.”
“You disabled security.”
“Yes.”
“You terrified Maria and my mother.”
Michael looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Maria’s recognition had triggered Vanessa’s panic because she knew
Michael’s presence would expose everything she had hidden.
That did not justify throwing hot soup.
Vanessa faced that separately.
She apologized to Maria without asking forgiveness.
Maria reported the assault.
Richard supported her right to do so.
Vanessa looked at him.
“You’re not going to protect me?”
“I’m not going to punish you either.”
She understood.
Actions had consequences.
Marriage did not erase them.
Then Michael surrendered the recorder and account list.
Investigators negotiated with banks.
The accounts held nearly twelve million dollars.
But the money was not Charles’s.
It had been transferred over decades from Jonathan’s shell companies.
Blackmail payments.
Skimmed legal fees.
Hidden project funds.
Jonathan had used Charles and Thomas’s conflict to build his own
fortune.
Evelyn’s payments were only a fraction.
Jonathan was arrested on financial charges while prosecutors evaluated
the homicide evidence.
Richard expected relief.
Instead, Jonathan smiled as officers led him away.
“You still don’t know why Charles changed his will.”
Richard froze.
Jonathan continued.
“Ask your mother who Richard Cole really is.”
Evelyn’s face collapsed.
Richard stared at her.
“Mom?”
Jonathan laughed.
Even handcuffed, he had found one final secret.
Richard looked at Evelyn.
She whispered, “Not here.”
He felt cold.
“Whatever it is, we are done hiding.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
May you like
Then she said:
“Charles was not your biological father.”
