PART 4 — A Son’s Betrayal
The hallway clock struck three in the morning. Each tick of the pendulum sounded like a hammer blow in my head. I sat at the kitchen table, the document from the study spread out before me. My hands were cold.
Lucas. My son. My quietest, most devoted child. The one who had taken over management of the company after Daniel died, who called me every day to ask how I was doing, who had carried his father’s coffin with tears streaming down his cheeks.
Was it all an act?
I grabbed the car keys from the hook near the door. I couldn’t wait until morning. I needed answers now.
Ten minutes later, I drove through the quiet city streets to Lucas’s apartment. Rain battered the windshield. My thoughts spun out of control. Julian could be lying. He wanted the inheritance; he wanted to protect the house in Portland for his mother. But how did he know about Lucas’s car?
I parked in front of Lucas’s building and took the elevator to the fourth floor. I inserted my spare key into the lock and opened the door as quietly as possible. The apartment was dark, except for a single light in the study.
As I walked down the hall, I heard a voice. Lucas was on the phone.
"I told you it’s taken care of!" Lucas shouted into the phone. His voice didn't sound panicked, but furious. "She knows nothing. She thinks it was just an accident."
I froze near the doorway.
"No, M, you need to stay quiet!" Lucas continued. "If you keep your mouth shut to the lawyer, everything will be fine. But if you try to contact my mother again, I'll make sure you don't see another cent from that account."
M. Monique. The mother of Julian.
My own son was working with my husband's mistress.
I pushed the study door wide open. The wood creaked loudly. Lucas spun around abruptly, the phone still pressed to his ear. His face turned pale when he saw me standing there.
"Mom?" he stammered. He slowly lowered the phone and disconnected the call. "What... what are you doing here at this hour?"
I walked slowly toward his desk. "Who were you talking to, Lucas?"
"Nobody, just... work," he lied, but his eyes avoided mine.
"Lying apparently runs in the Vance family," I said in a voice so cold I barely recognized it myself. "You were talking to Monique Laurent. The woman your father had a second family with."
Lucas swallowed hard. He ran a hand through his hair and sank into his desk chair. "You don't understand, Mom."
"Then explain it to me!" I screamed. The pent-up emotions of the past few days spilled out all at once. "Explain to me why my son is in contact with the woman who ruined my life! Explain to me what you were doing on the road to Portland on Tuesday night!"
Lucas looked at me in shock. "How do you know... Who told you that?"
"Julian Miller came to see me," I said. "He said you were in the car with your father. He said you killed him!"
"What?!" Lucas jumped up. His face contorted in horror. "That liar! That is absolutely not true, Mom! I swear it on my life!"
"Then why were you there?" I asked, my tone pleading. "Tell me the truth, Lucas. Please."
Lucas collapsed back down and covered his face with his hands. When he looked up, there were tears in his eyes.
"I found out a month ago," he whispered. "I discovered irregularities in the company’s books. Ten thousand dollars was being transferred monthly to a private account in Portland. I investigated and discovered Dad’s second family."
"And why didn't you tell me anything?"
"Because he blackmailed me!" Lucas said agitatedly. "Dad said if I told you, he would declare bankruptcy on the company and transfer everything to Julian. He set up a clause. I was trying to fix it, Mom. I wanted to buy that woman off so you would never find out!"
"And Tuesday night?" I asked, my heart still racing.
"Tuesday night Dad called me. He was furious because Monique had tried to contact you. He said he was driving to Portland to destroy everything. I drove after him to stop him. I was trailing him on the highway... we were arguing over the phone."
Lucas began to tremble violently. "Then it started raining heavily. I saw his car skid on the wet road. He lost control of the wheel... flipped over into the ravine."
"And you?" I whispered. "What did you do?"
Lucas looked at me with an expression of pure terror. "I stopped. I drove down. I wanted to save him, Mom... I really did! But when I reached the wreckage..."
He stopped.
"What was at the wreckage, Lucas?"
"There was someone else in the wreck, Mom. Not Dad in the driver's seat. Dad was in the back seat... with his hands tied. And the man behind the wheel... was still alive."
