“Can you fucking believe she said that about our father?”
Alice shakes her head, her tan face turning a sickly color. “I should have told you,” she whispers.
“What the hell?” My blood turns to ice. “Are you saying it’s true?”
“Yes, it’s true. They were both in on it. They hired that particular CFO on purpose, then let him take the fall when everything came to light. Dad had a gambling problem, and he blew tons of money on his mistresses. Yes, multiple. That’s why Mother followed him everywhere when he wasn’t at work. It wasn’t love; it was justifiable paranoia. Uncle Bill had similar habits, and he was also a coke addict at the time. The day of the accident, I heard Dad arguing with him on the phone. Yelling. Maybe an hour before he left the house.”
“What did you hear our father say?” I barely recognize my voice, it’s coming from so very far away. The room is swimming. Xena groans in sympathy and paws my leg. I reach down and stroke her head in reassurance.
“Dad told Uncle Bill that if he didn’t start coughing up a lot more of his own money, he was going to expose him and let everything go to hell. Uncle Bill said something about how it would ruin all of us, and Dad said, ‘Screw my family, I don’t care anymore.’ Then he stomped off to the rec room and drank. I mean, he drank more. He was already halfway wasted. He was drunk when he was yelling at you about the dog, he was drunk when he left the house. That’s why he crashed.”
“Bullshit! That would have been all over the news.”
She shakes her head. “Uncle Bill managed to smooth it over. Not for our sake. He did it because the company was just starting to recover from the financial scandal.”
“You’re lying,” I say desperately.
She just looks at me with the same pitying expression that Winona had earlier.
“If you knew that, why didn’t you turn Uncle Bill in?” I demand. “Were you…were you just trying to protect the company?”
She snorts in contempt. “No, I was trying to protect you. Part of it was that I didn’t want to ruin your image of our father. You were already heartbroken by his death, and you worshipped Dad blindly.”
“It wasn’t blind!” I’m shouting now. Wanting to drown out the truth. “You know what, fucking lie all you want to yourself, but don’t lie to me like this. Just because you had a lousy relationship with Mom and Dad, just because you never appreciated all the sacrifices they made for us, doesn’t give you the right to make up this crap.”
“And you wonder why I never told you?” Her eyes blaze with hurt and anger. “You know what? Dad and Granddad’s pictures are on the far right side of the attic, turned towards the wall, behind a trunk full of Christmas ornaments. Go fetch them and put them back up on that altar of ancestor worship you like to pray to.” And she hangs up.
I’m cursing at my sister, just like I cursed at Winona. Shame tears at my heart, shredding it like wet paper. I don’t bully women. I don’t swear at the people I love.
I call her back, praying she’ll pick up. It goes to voicemail.
I count to thirty, then call again. I can’t lose her too. I’ve lost Winona – no, I’ve destroyed Winona, and I’ve lost my father – the father I thought I knew.
She answers, her eyes red and watery, her faced flushed with emotion. Steve’s standing next to her, and his bland, pleasant face is ablaze with fury.
“Watch how you talk to my wife if you want anything to do with our family ever again,” he snaps. “And fucking apologize for what you just said.”
I have never heard him curse, not in the ten years they’ve been married. Steve is the most mild-mannered man I’ve ever met. Up until right now.
“I’m sorry,” I say wretchedly. “You’re right. It was unforgiveable for me to speak to you that way, and it won’t happen again. Go on with what you were telling me, Alice. I need to know.”
“The main reason I kept everything quiet was that Uncle Bill told me that if I went to the cops, he’d deny everything, and he’d not only personally destroy me, he’d get custody of you and send you to the worst military school in the country. He said he’d make your life a living hell.”
“That flaming asshole.” I shake my head slowly from side to side. The anger’s draining from me. I don’t even know what I feel right now. “He… I thought he cared about us. I mean, he used to invite us to holiday meals and take me to the country club…”
“That was a warning to me. He was continually reminding me of his power over us.”
God, that must have been horrible for her. She endured all of that, for me.
“He paid for me to go to private school,” I protest, dazed.
“No, he just bullied me into letting you think that. I actually used some of the money from our share of the company profits to pay for your school. I wanted to have you go to public school, but that motherfucker said people would figure out we were broke.” She shakes her head, her eyes burning with anger. “We desperately needed that money; I was literally juggling bills every month.”
Someone’s snatched a rug from underneath me, and I’m falling and falling and falling. “I cannot freaking believe this,” I husk.
“Believe it. The day you turned eighteen, I called up his wife and told her about his mistresses.” Her mouth turns up in an angry smile. “He called me up screaming and threatening, but he’d lost his hold on me, because he couldn’t get custody of you.”
“Did Henry know?” I ask, feeling ill.
“As far as I know, he was unaware that Dad and Uncle Bill ripped the company off. I do know that he seriously considered quitting when our parents were still around, and he only stayed for our sakes.”
Alice shrugs. “Anyway. When you turned eighteen, in addition to telling his wife what he was up to, I told Uncle Bill that I was going to go to the board and demand that they send in a team of auditors, and he got hysterical. Screamed, threatened, cursed me out, begged, then finally crumbled. Turned out he’d still been ripping off the company, he was just being more subtle and taking a lot less. Do you remember I worked in the finance office for several years? That was why. I forced him to pay it all back to the store, and I also made him agree to have an outside firm review our accounts so he couldn’t get away with it anymore.”
“Oh, he’s still getting away with it.” I feel sick. “That’s the only reason he’d be fighting so hard to keep us from going public. It all makes sense now. I let him convince me that it was just because he was afraid of change, because he was so loyal to my father’s vision, but I should have seen right through him. Going public would be hugely profitable for all of us – it would make him a mint, and that that man is greedier than King Midas. The only reason he’d be fighting it is because he knows he’ll be exposed.”
“I hope that’s not the case, Blake.” Alice looks distressed. “If he’s still been ripping off the store, he’s been very clever about it. And I should have told you the truth a long time ago.”
“Everything you did, you did for me. From now on, if you ever need to tell me anything, please do, and I promise I will hear everything you have to say.”