I knew that.
I had never known how deeply.
At the bottom of the page was one line:
Evidence provided by P. Whitmore.
Patricia.
I immediately called her.
She rejected the call.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then she sent one message.
Please don’t ask Daniel. He cannot know yet.
I replied:
Know what?
Her answer arrived thirty seconds later.
That our father stole your inheritance.
And then:
Or that I helped him hide it.
PART 4 — PATRICIA’S CONFESSION
Patricia called me at 2:17 in the morning.
I answered before the first ring finished.
“Start talking.”
Her voice shook.
“I was twenty-six.”
“I don’t care how old you were.”
“I know.”
“Did Charles take money from my father?”
“Yes.”
The word landed like a stone.
“How?”
Patricia began crying.
I felt nothing.
Not yet.
“Your father, Michael Bennett, invested with my father in a land-development fund. When Bennett Industrial Design was sold, part of the proceeds went into that fund.”
