Chapter 15 - The School Thomas Was Never Going to Choose
Daniel had already contacted the boarding school.
Valerie learned that from an admissions email found in the archive.
The school was in Virginia.
Daniel described Thomas as oppositional, emotionally volatile, and in need of structure.
Valerie had never seen the application.
Her electronic signature appeared on the parent consent page.
Again.
This one was definitely forged.
Thomas read the school name and went pale.
“Dad told me it was a summer camp.”
“When?”
“February.”
Valerie closed her eyes.
Daniel had been preparing to remove Thomas from the house before moving the money.
He would have called it discipline.
Structure.
Opportunity.
Another reasonable explanation delivered before anyone asked the child what he wanted.
Priya filed the evidence immediately.
Daniel’s attorneys stopped requesting near-term visitation.
That did not make Thomas feel better.
It made him angrier.
“He was going to send me away because I noticed things.”
Valerie nodded.
“And you would have let him.”
The sentence hit hard.
Valerie did not defend herself.
“I might have.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You always believed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Valerie wanted to say because Daniel was convincing.
Because marriage required trust.
Because adults also get scared.
All true.
None enough.
“Because believing him was easier than asking questions that might change our whole life.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“So you picked easy.”
“Yes.”
The honesty made him angrier before it made anything better.
He left the room.
Valerie cried after he was gone.
Not because he was unfair.
Because he was right.
Later Ruth sat beside her.
“You know you can forgive yourself eventually.”
“I’m not there.”
“You don’t have to be.”
Valerie looked at the closed bedroom door.
“I want him to forgive me.”
“That cannot be your next project.”
Valerie turned.
Ruth continued.
“You built restaurants by solving problems. Thomas is not a broken location.”
Valerie gave a weak laugh.
“He gets to be mad as long as he needs.”
That lesson was harder than any audit.
Meanwhile, Nick spent his first weekend with Leah.
He texted Thomas exactly three times.
The cereal was still wrong.
Leah had a dog named Pickles.
He slept with the bedroom door open.
On Sunday he sent a picture of a grilled cheese sandwich cut diagonally.
Thomas stared at it for a full minute.
Then typed, Looks disgusting.
Nick replied, It was.
Both boys understood the language beneath it.
I’m okay.
I remembered you.
The criminal investigation reached the Mercer family trust.
Walter agreed to surrender control of Larkspur and testify about the financial scheme.
Richard followed.
Jenna’s cooperation gave prosecutors the remaining pieces.
Daniel became the only major participant refusing to negotiate.
His attorney announced he would go to trial.
Valerie expected fear.
Instead she felt relief.
Not because trial would be easy.
Because Daniel had spent months trying to reshape reality privately.
Now he would have to do it in a room where other people could answer.
Then the state made a decision Valerie did not expect.
Nick would testify.
His advocate opposed it at first.
The prosecutor said the recording could come in through other witnesses, but Nick’s account of why he started recording and what happened before the audio mattered.
Nick said yes before anyone finished explaining.
Valerie found out later.
“You don’t have to do this for us.”
Nick looked offended.
“I’m not.”
“Then why?”
“Because his lawyer keeps saying I wanted money.”
Nick’s jaw tightened.
“I want to say it where he has to sit there and hear me.”
“What?”
“That I stepped in because Thomas was scared.”
Valerie understood.
Nick did not want to be turned into a saint.
He wanted ownership of his own reason.
Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a folded restaurant receipt.
“What’s that?” Valerie asked.
“The first thing Thomas gave me.”
On the back, in Thomas’s handwriting, was Bellmere’s address.
Under it were four words.
Come tomorrow. I’ll wait.
Nick folded it carefully.
“I did.”
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