The photographs of my father proved otherwise.
One document contained handwritten instructions for following Julian after the crash.
A forensic examiner identified Mavis’s writing.
The phrase at the bottom read:
Keep him silent until Grant secures the Bellamy girl.
Grant was twenty-four at the time.
We did not meet until five years later.
Mavis had not planned our first encounter.
But once it happened, she cultivated it.
She invited me to family dinners.
Encouraged Grant to propose.
Pretended to welcome me.
Then spent seven years stripping away my confidence so I would remain useful and quiet.
When agents placed her in handcuffs, she looked at me.
“You think your father is innocent?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“My father concealed corporate failures. He trusted the wrong people. He allowed Bellamy power to become too concentrated.”
Julian looked at me but did not interrupt.
I continued.
“But his failures do not excuse yours.”
