“What do you mean?” Aunt Lille asked, speaking for the first time. She’d been quietly standing back, observing theconfrontation. Mam was out back on a work call and had no idea of the drama that was unfolding in her front hallway.
“Under my instruction, Oliver sent money to the catfish’s crypto wallet. It would’ve come with an email alert, and if any of you had seen the alert when you opened your inboxes, you would’ve displayed obvious shock or surprise. Both are easily read, especially in an uncomfortable environment like, say, the cold. None of you did.”
“The cold? You had us outsideon purpose?” Kami accused. “That’s so fucking sneaky and, sure, smart, but mostly sneaky.”
Dad shot her a mildly apologetic shrug.
“Why would they be shocked? How much did you send?” Uncle Jack asked.
“Ten grand worth of cryptocurrency.”
“What the actual fuck?” I demanded of my father, angry now. “This person has been scamming people using my identity, and you just sent them ten bloody grand.”
“Relax,” Dad said. “I needed it to be a large enough sum to solicit a visible reaction. Besides, we didn’t actually send them money. Oliver has some clever ways of making it look like we did. He’ll be sending another alert shortly informing them the transfer was a glitch in the system.”
“This is messed up. I think of you all as my family,” Angus gritted out, emotion catching in his throat. “I don’t care if I’m not a suspect any longer. The fact that you’d even—” His words fell off, his hurt clear as day.
“Son, please just let me explain,” Dad said, finally having the decency to sound guilty as he stepped towards Angus, but my bandmate, who I considered a brother, moved away.
“Don’t bother,” he said, then turned and walked out the door.
“Fuck,” Dad groaned and ran a hand down his face.
“You need to go after him,” Uncle Jack said, the gravel in his voice showing he was angry at Dad, not only for upsetting Angus but also for making both his sons suspects. I expected he had a lot of apologies to make tonight. I felt like crap about it because if someone wasn’t targeting me, then none of this drama would even be happening. It was tearing my family apart.
“Yeah, I know,” Dad replied before looking to Roan, Elias, and Kami. “I’m sorry I had you down as suspects, but it was necessary to rule you out. With a little more time, I think you’ll all come to understand that.”
He left then, following after Angus, and I sure hoped he had some good grovelling prepared. Angus had been through a lot with his own parents, and my family had become a sanctuary for him. My parents took him in, treated him as their own, and I knew he considered us his real family. For Dad to suspect him of doing something like this, it must’ve hurt deep. My father could be so committed to untangling mysteries that he didn’t realise who he was hurting along the way. It was his one big blind spot.
I was guilty of a similar flaw. When I was on drugs, I’d been so focused on blotting out my trauma that I’d lost sight of what was truly important above all else, my wife and child.
“I’m so sorry about all this,” I said, addressing everyone left.
Uncle Jack came and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t apologise for my brother’s fuck ups. It’s not your fault.”
“I still feel like shit about it. I knew what he was doing, but I couldn’t manage to talk him out of it.”
“I think everyone’s ignoring the worst part of all this,” Kami said, garnering our attention. “We still don’t know who the catfish is.”
“Actually, I might have a theory,” Shannon said, her gaze meeting mine, and I instantly knew who she was referring to. The dickhead from her work. “But I need to run it by Jay first.”
“Why not just tell us?” Kami said. “Since we’re supposedly in the clear. We deserve to know.”
“It’s not that simple. If I’m wrong, I could cause trouble in this person’s life, and I’d rather not do that until I have more concrete proof.”
“Maybe it’s time to get the authorities involved,” Aunt Lille suggested, and it was at that moment my mam finally appeared.
“The authorities?” she asked, peering around at everyone gathered in the hallway and quickly taking in the tense atmosphere. She sighed. “Okay, what did I miss? And why do I have a feeling my husband is at fault?”
***
Mam made tea and did her best to soothe everybody’s hurt feelings by patting shoulders and offering chocolate biscuits. Dad had come back after trying to mend things with Angus. I wasn’t sure what was said between them, but he wore the expression of a man who’d fucked up royally. I decided I’d stop by Angus’ place later to see how he was doing.
I watched as Shannon drank the last sip from her teacup, then stood from the armchair she’d been sitting in. She brushed down her outfit, swatting away a few stray biscuit crumbs, and my gaze followed her hands. It was difficult not to focus on every little thing she did, tough to give her space when all I wanted to do was pull her close.
“Let me drive you home,” I offered.
She barely met my gaze as a rosy tinge stained her cheeks. “It’s still early. We can walk.”
