Chapter 5 - Uncle Thomas
Michael sat down.
For the first time since entering the house, he looked shaken.
“Thomas knew?”
Mom wiped her face.
“He did more than know.”
“What does that mean?”
She looked at me.
Then Ethan.
Then finally Michael.
“Your brother helped me disappear.”
Michael stared at her.
“Why?”
Mom laughed bitterly.
“Because you were going to take Brooke.”
“What?”
“You filed for emergency custody.”
Michael stood.
“Because you disappeared with her!”
“You threatened me first.”
“I told you I would fight for my daughter after I found out about the money.”
Money.
There it was.
The first clue that this was bigger than a broken marriage.
“What money?” I asked.
Mom went silent again.
Michael looked at me.
“Your grandfather left you a trust.”
I stared.
“My grandfather?”
“My father.”
“How much?”
“At the time? Around $600,000.”
Gary swore softly.
Michael continued.
“It was supposed to remain protected until you turned twenty-one.”
I looked at Mom.
“What happened to it?”
Her face gave me the answer.
“No.”
“Brooke—”
“What happened to it?”
Michael’s voice hardened.
“Diane tried to access it.”
Mom snapped:
“To pay medical bills!”
“What medical bills?”
“Yours.”
I frowned.
I had never been seriously ill.
Michael shook his head.
“She forged expenses.”
Mom looked furious.
“You don’t know what I was dealing with.”
“I know the trustee contacted me because claims didn’t match.”
I felt sick.
Michael continued.
“When I confronted her, she took you and vanished.”
“And Thomas helped?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
Michael looked away.
That hurt before he said anything.
“My brother owed money.”
“To who?”
Mom answered.
“Gary.”
Everyone looked at Gary.
He sighed.
“This is old.”
Michael stepped toward him.
“Apparently not.”
Gary had known Thomas through construction jobs.
Thomas had gambling debts.
Gary covered some.
Then Gary became leverage.
Mom needed documents.
Thomas needed money.
Gary connected them.
For a price.
“Were you with Mom then?” I asked Gary.
“No.”
“When did that start?”
“Years later.”
But their relationship wasn’t random.
Gary had been tied to our disappearance from the beginning.
Ethan squeezed my hand.
“So Dad helped hide Brooke?”
Gary looked at him.
“Yes.”
Ethan’s face fell.
That was worse than the belt.
A child can understand cruelty.
Betrayal is harder.
Then Michael asked:
“What exactly did Thomas sign?”
Mom looked exhausted.
“Affidavits. Identity changes. The death record.”
“You forged a government death record?”
She snapped:
“It wasn’t official at first.”
“At first?”
Silence.
Michael’s face darkened.
“You actually got it entered.”
Mom looked away.
That explained why he had been impossible to find.
He wasn’t just missing.
On paper, he was dead.
Then I found one more trust statement.
Recent.
Not seventeen years old.
Dated three months ago.
Current balance:
$1,842,611.
I stared.
“The trust still exists.”
Michael looked shocked.
“What?”
Mom went pale.
Gary lunged for the paper.
Michael stopped him.
I read further.
Beneficiary status:
Pending identity verification.
My heart pounded.
Someone had recently reopened the trust.
Then I saw the contact name.
THOMAS REEVES.
Michael’s dead—or supposedly distant—brother had contacted the trustee three months ago claiming to represent me.
Michael stared at the page.
“My brother is still involved.”
Mom whispered:
“No.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
She started shaking.
“Thomas is dead.”
Silence.
Michael’s face emptied.
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
May you like
That meant someone had contacted the trust using Thomas’s identity years after his death.
And suddenly the mysterious lie had another layer.
