Page 110 of Tanner

“Please don’t be upset, but I looked in your mom’s file. I swear, I wasn’t snooping. It was sitting there, and I just—”

“Harper, it’s okay.” I lean in closer, taking her hand in mine. “I told you it was there. I don’t mind that you opened it. Is that what this is all about? You thought I’d be mad?”

She turns and grabs her purse off the counter where she placed it. A photo from my mom’s accident, one I’ve stared at many times over the years, is now in her hands. I take it from her and take a deep breath, slowly letting it out.

Every picture in that file is ingrained in my memory. The car, the road, even the ones of her lifeless body. Everyone thought I was too young, too fragile to know the truth. When I took the file and went through it, I had to prove to myself that I could handle it. I stared at it until I was numb.

In many ways, I still am.

“Why do you have this?” I question her.

She’s gnawing at her cheek. “I took it to my dad to ask his opinion on something.”

My brows rise at the unexpected comment. She was in Queens today. Without me. “You lied about where you were going?”

“I did.” She nods. “Only because I had to ask him something serious, and I didn’t want you there. I could be wrong. I could very well be wrong, but …” She pauses. Her eyes look at mine so deeply, so full of conviction, that I have no other choice but to take her seriously. I’m surprised when she utters the words, “Is it possible your mother was murdered?”

* * *

I’ve never been kicked in the balls. I assume it would hurt less than the feeling radiating through my entire body right now.

For the last hour, Harper told me her theory, how Missy’s words had rubbed her wrong and even how my comment struck a chord. She’s right. I’ve always believed Missy had something on my father. I just thought it was something else.

I don’t know anything about cars, but when she explained how the accident could have been caused by someone unscrewing simple bolts and how her father had agreed it would be nearly impossible for the tire to come off in such a manner without someone tampering with and loosening the lug nuts, I felt sick.

Investigators had been at our house a lot after my mother’s accident. Some late at night and many times behind the closed door of my father’s study. I thought it was normal. As I got older and watched crime dramas, I started to wonder if that was typical.

My father is a bastard. A scoundrel. He’s not a murderer. He knows about cars though. Taught Austin everything he knows.

No.

There’s no way. I can’t believe it. Can I?

I wouldn’t put it past Missy though. She cleaned out my mother’s closets a week after her death. I was told she was helping out because my father couldn’t do it himself.

She donated everything to The Salvation Army. That’s probably why I swept in and took my mom’s New York furniture the way I did. Missy hadn’t given me a chance to keep anything else.

Her presence in our family was fast and official. It was as if she knew the place in my father’s bed was going to be vacant. Still, I didn’t think like that. I still don’t think like that.

“Are you sure?” I ask Harper, who nods her head.

My mother might have had enemies, but I wouldn’t know who any of them were. Odds are, if someone did do this, it was either Missy or my father.

As the thoughts run through my brain, it all seems more and more plausible.

I, too, heard Missy say the words, “And it got her pushed off a cliff.”

It’s times like this I know I’m not as old as I pretend to be. There’s still a bit of naivety left. As the seconds pass, I can feel my heart harden.

“Fuck,” I shout, causing Harper to jump in her seat.

I’m now by the window where I’ve been pacing for God knows how long. She must have turned the burners off on the stove, and she’s sitting on a stool, waiting for me to process … all of this.

“I knew that fucking bastard had something to do with it. It was too convenient. All of it. I had a front row seat and didn’t see it.”

She’s off the stool and at me in a heartbeat. Her hands grip my face as she looks up at me, pulling my face down to hers. “Yes, you did. You knew something was wrong. That’s why you took the file. I’m so sorry, Tanner. I really didn’t want it to be the truth. I had to make sure my dad agreed with me before I said something.”

I shake my head and pinch my lips in anger. “That’s why they want to sell. They’ve wanted to sell since day one. I bet they never expected Bryce to step up and run the company the way he did. That’s why he supported Austin’s military stint so much. They’ve been planning this the entire time. How could we have been so stupid?”