Chapter 9
My father was still there.”
“Was he angry?”
“He was calm.”
That seemed worse somehow.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing at first.
He asked why I wasn’t in bed.
I said I had heard shouting.
He told me I was imagining things.”
“That sounds familiar.”
Dominic flinched, almost imperceptibly.
“My father was very good at making people doubt what they saw.”
The wind shifted, carrying the faint scent of smoke and snow.
“And then?”
I asked.
“Then he told me your father had gone home.”
“He hadn’t.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I saw his car still parked outside.”
I stared at him.
“You knew he hadn’t left.”
“I knew his car hadn’t left.
I didn’t know what that meant.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“Who would I tell?”
“Your mother.”
“She was already sick by then.”
“Vanessa?”
“She was twelve.”
“My mother?”
Dominic looked down at the letter.
“I didn’t know where she lived.
I knew her only as someone who came to the house occasionally.
She worked for my father, but she wasn’t staff in the usual sense.”
“What did she do?”
“I never knew.”
“You saw her.”
“Yes.”
“And you never asked?”
“My father didn’t allow questions about his business.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It wasn’t a business where curiosity was rewarded.”
There was no drama in his tone.
No attempt to make himself sound noble or tragic.
Just an exhausted honesty that left me with nowhere to place my anger.
I looked at the letter again.
“Why would my mother think you’d say you didn’t remember?”
“Because that’s what I told the police.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
“When your father was reported missing, someone asked whether I had seen him that night.
I said no.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid of my father.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
The word settled between us.
Vanessa had gone very still.
She had known some of this, I realized.
Maybe not all of it, but enough to understand why Dominic’s face had changed when I opened the envelope.
“You knew,” I said to her.
“I knew Dominic had seen your father that night.”
“You knew, and you never told me?”
“I didn’t know how.”
“You could have started with the truth.”
“I wanted to.”
Her voice softened.
“But every time I tried, Dominic said he needed to speak to you himself.”
I turned toward him.
“And you waited three years to speak to me about this?”