Chapter 4 - The Woman Michael Trusted
Helen Ward did not run.
She arrived at Adrian’s apartment carrying groceries and a Christmas
gift for Lily.
Adrian left the gift unopened.
“Why were you in the chapel?”
Helen went pale.
“Lily remembered?”
“Enough.”
Helen sat.
“I didn’t push Claire to hurt her.”
“You pushed her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She was reaching for Brent’s gun.”
Adrian stared.
Helen explained the Christmas Eve confrontation.
Michael and Claire had discovered Brent was using Saint Agnes to drain
trusts. They summoned Helen because she had helped create the original
legal structure years earlier.
Brent arrived with Reese and Kessler.
The argument became violent.
Brent pulled a gun.
Claire lunged for it.
Helen pushed her away.
The weapon fired into the ceiling.
Lily saw only the push.
“What happened next?”
“Michael got Lily out.”
“And Claire?”
“Stayed.”
“Why?”
“She had evidence hidden there.”
Helen cried.
“I should have stayed too.”
Claire survived that night.
She died with Michael in the car crash two days later.
Adrian’s anger shifted but did not disappear.
“You signed the first trust.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Saint Agnes was legitimate then.”
“Wynn says otherwise.”
“Wynn lies when truth makes him look weak.”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
Helen nodded.
“Pretty much.”
The chapel evidence gave prosecutors enough to suspend Brent’s
guardianship.
Lily’s trust was frozen.
Judge Kessler abruptly recused himself.
Then disappeared.
Christmas was six days away.
Adrian took Lily and Noah to a protected apartment decorated with a tiny
artificial tree.
Lily hated it.
“It looks like a toilet brush.”
“It was twelve dollars.”
“It looks like an eleven-dollar toilet brush.”
Noah giggled.
It was the first time Adrian heard him laugh.
They made popcorn strings.
Burned cookies.
Watched old Christmas movies.
For one evening, nobody talked about courts or dead parents.
Then Lily asked Adrian, “Did you have a dad?”
“Yes.”
“Was he nice?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
Adrian looked at the tree.
“He taught me what kind of man I didn’t want to become.”
“Did it work?”
“Some days.”
Lily considered.
“You’re doing okay today.”
That sentence stayed with him.
At midnight someone knocked.
Three slow knocks.
Adrian drew his weapon and checked the camera.
Wynn.
He let him in only after searching him.
Wynn carried a medical file.
“Noah’s.”
The boy had been registered at Saint Agnes under another name.
Nicholas Reed.
His mother was Emily Reed, a nurse who died eighteen months earlier.
Father listed as unknown.
But a sealed DNA report named Brent Parker.
Lily whispered, “Noah is Uncle Brent’s son?”
“Yes.”
Noah looked terrified.
“Do I have to go with him?”
Adrian crouched.
“No.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
Wynn explained Brent had hidden Noah because acknowledging him would
expose payments to Emily. She had worked at Saint Agnes and threatened
to reveal the abuse.
“Did Brent kill her?” Adrian asked.
“I can’t prove it.”
“Who can?”
Wynn looked at Helen.
“Michael could.”
“Michael is dead.”
Wynn shook his head.
“No.”
Silence.
Lily stood.
“What?”
Wynn’s voice became careful.
“Michael Parker’s body was never positively identified after the crash.”
Adrian felt the room tilt.
“Then who was buried?”
“Remains recovered from the burned vehicle. The identification relied on
dental records supplied by Dr. Reese.”
Helen covered her mouth.
Lily stared at Wynn.
“My daddy is alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian moved beside her.
“Do not promise her something you don’t know.”
Wynn nodded.
“You’re right.”
Then he handed Adrian a recent surveillance photograph.
A bearded man stood outside a church in Wisconsin.
His face was partly turned away.
Lily grabbed the picture.
“That’s Daddy.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You’re sure?”
She pointed at the man’s left hand.
A missing fingertip.
“Daddy lost it making a bookshelf.”
The photograph had been taken four days earlier.
On the back was an address.
May you like
And a warning.
IF MICHAEL PARKER REMEMBERS WHO HE IS, BRENT LOSES EVERYTHING.
