Chapter 48

48

Rose walks into Temple Black through the heavy glass doors to reception, summoning all the poise she can muster. It’s the kind of law office she has always aspired to work at—one that oozes money, and power, and success. Not like her shitty little storefront, with its “walk-ins welcome” sign. She should have joined a large, prestigious firm like this one, rather than setting out on her own, but the truth is, she didn’t have any offers. Maybe she wouldn’t have gotten herself into trouble if she’d had someone watching over her. They always warn sole practitioners about that. But it’s too late to think these things now.

As she follows the receptionist down the corridor to Walter Temple’s office, she happens to glance through the glass into one of the boardrooms and recognizes a law school friend, Janet Shewcuk. Janet sees her and quickly turns away.

Rose has never met Walter Temple. He welcomes her warmly. He must not know yet, she thinks, about what she did with Dan’s money.

“Ms. Cutter,” he says, “thank you for coming.”

She gives him a tentative smile. “The police told me yesterday—about the will,” she says, sitting down opposite him, crossing her legs at the ankles.

The older attorney nods. “It’s good news for you, although I imagine it may be a little upsetting, too.”

She looks back at him. “So it’s true?”

“Yes. You have been named as a beneficiary in Fred Merton’s will.” He clears his throat. “I’m not sure if you knew he was your biological father.”

She shakes her head. “No.” She sits completely still as he goes over what she will inherit. When he’s finished, she takes a deep breath and says, her eyes fixed on the surface of his desk, “I had no idea about any of this. I didn’t know he was my father. This is—unimaginable.”

As she gets up to leave, Walter says, with a warning in his voice, “You should prepare yourself—the others don’t like it.”

---

•   •   •rose drives directly to her mother’s house. Her mother is surprised to see her.

“We need to talk, Mom,” she says, walking briskly through the front door.

They sit down across from each other in the small living room. Her mother looks at her expectantly. “What is it?” she asks.

“Dad wasn’t my real father, was he?” Rose says. It sounds accusatory. Her mother’s face takes on a pained, almost frightened expression as Rose stares at her. Her mother looks down into her lap and says, “No, he wasn’t.” She hesitates for a moment. “Your father couldn’t have children,” she explains. “So I found someone else.”

When her mother doesn’t fill the silence, Rose says, “You had an affair.”

Her mother looks at her, almost pleading. “I wanted a child so badly, Rose. It was the only way.”

Rose stares at her mother. She’d never known the man she’d believed was her father; he’d died when she was about a year old. Still, it’s a strange thing to know about your parents. About yourself. “I just found out that Fred Merton was my father.”

Her mother asks, clearly surprised, “How?”

“Fred Merton made me a beneficiary in his will,” she says, and watches her mother’s face transform. Astonishment first—and then pleasure.

“He did? How much did he leave you?”

“About six million,” Rose says, hardly believing it, even now. “The same as the other kids.”

“The same—oh my God,” her mother says, with an expression of utter amazement. “I had no idea you were in the will at all!” Her mother leans forward and takes one of her hands and clasps it in her own. “This is wonderful, Rose! Because you’re his flesh and blood just as much as those other kids are. You deserve an equal share of his wealth.” Her mother continues excitedly. “He always knew you were his. And he gave me money for your care, every month, from when you were little until you graduated law school.” She becomes more serious and adds, “I’m sorry I kept it from you. Perhaps I should have told you. But he didn’t want that, and I didn’t want to rock the boat. At first I was afraid he might stop sending money, and I needed it. And then, after that—I guess I was just a coward.”

Rose feels a fluttering in her stomach. This really is the sort of thing you dream of, if you’re raised by a single mom and your friends are wealthy. It’s like a fairy tale. But all fairy tales are tinged with darkness.

Her mother says, “They might not accept you as a sister right away, even though Catherine’s your friend. But I’m sure they’ll come around. Oh, honey—this will change your life!”

But Rose is only half listening now.

---

•   •   •lisa walks around the house, numb, disoriented. It’s a week exactly since the bodies were discovered. She tries to act normally, but it’s hard. When Dan arrived home earlier from his police interview, he was angry and upset. He didn’t want to tell her why. But she finally got it out of him. He admitted they had a witness who saw him in Brecken Hill the night of the murders.

They were sitting in the living room, across from each other. He was on the sofa, and she was in the armchair. That’s when she realized that she’d been keeping herself at a distance from her husband lately. When, exactly, had she stopped sitting beside him, her hand on his shoulder, looking up into his face, commiserating with him? Instead she sat coldly opposite, watching him while he had his head down, staring at the floor.

She sat rigid in her chair. “Is it true?” she asked, a quiet horror and bitterness in her voice. The disposable coveralls had been concerning, but she knew why they were there; he’d used them for the work in the attic. He’d told her that he’d been driving around that night, trying to calm down, that he hadn’t been anywhere near Brecken Hill. She’d believed him.

“Yes,” he admitted. “But I can explain.”

She sat there reviewing her options, as he tried to beg his way back into her heart.

“I never went to my parents’ again that night, I swear,” he said. He told her then how Rose Cutter had swindled him. The money was gone. It was the owner of the house who had seen him.

She sat there thinking what a fool her husband was, to be taken in by Rose Cutter, to lose half a million dollars like that. Maybe his father had been right about him all along. Still, if he wasn’t convicted and inherited all that money, they’d be rich. She didn’t necessarily have to stay married to him forever.

“I drove to that house in Brecken Hill and just sat there, thinking,” Dan said, speaking quickly. “I was so angry at myself for tying up our money for so long—I didn’t know we’d need it. The police think I knew what she’d done and that I’d never get the money back, and it makes it look like I killed Mom and Dad.” He stood up, in a rage. “That fucking bitch—this is all her fault! If she hadn’t pushed that deal on me we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

Lisa could see his point. They’d had half a million dollars in investments. The house was fully mortgaged because interest rates were so low. But Dan had taken that money out without telling her at first, and been duped. That money could have kept them nicely for a long time, until he got himself sorted out. And now the money is gone. It struck her that because of Rose Cutter, her husband might have been driven to murder.

Now, she thinks about it all again. Dan is out in the garage, trying to take his increasingly unhinged mind off things. She’s inside the house, tidying aimlessly, thinking about how one thing leads to another.