Chapter 3 - THE LETTER ARTHUR REFUSED TO READThe paper was yellow at the edges.
That was one reason Arthur had trusted him for more than three decades.
Martin could negotiate through lawsuits without raising his voice, fire a hundred employees without losing sleep, and sit across from federal investigators with the relaxed expression of a man discussing golf.
But the moment Martin saw Ethan Bennett inside the bakery, something happened to his face.
Fear.
It lasted less than a second.
Arthur saw it anyway.
“Arthur.”
Martin recovered quickly.
“What are you doing here?”
Arthur placed the faded photograph facedown on the table.
“Having breakfast.”
Martin’s gaze moved toward Ethan.
“And these children?”
Before Arthur could answer, Ethan pulled Lily behind him.
Martin noticed.
His smile tightened.
Arthur noticed that too.
“Friends of mine,” Arthur said.
Ethan stared at him.
Martin laughed lightly.
“You’ve become charitable before noon?”
“I’m trying new things.”
Martin glanced toward the bakery counter.
Nearly every display shelf was empty because Arthur had purchased the day’s food.
“What happened here?”
“I bought breakfast.”
“For the city?”
Arthur didn’t smile.
Martin finally looked back at the children.
“Have we met?”
“No,” Ethan said immediately.
Too immediately.
Martin studied him.
Ethan gripped Lily’s hand harder.
Arthur rose.
“Martin, why are you here?”
“Our nine-thirty meeting.”
Arthur checked his watch.
He had forgotten completely.
“I canceled it.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I am now.”
Martin’s brows rose.
“Everything all right?”
Arthur looked directly into his longtime partner’s eyes.
“I’ll let you know.”
That answer erased the remaining warmth from Martin’s expression.
He stepped closer.
“Arthur, perhaps we should speak privately.”
“No.”
Martin glanced at Ethan again.
Arthur moved slightly, putting himself between them.
It was an instinctive gesture.
A grandfather’s gesture.
Martin noticed.
“So,” Martin said quietly, “this is about Daniel.”
Ethan went rigid.
Arthur felt cold move down his back.
He had never mentioned Daniel’s name.
“How did you know?”
Martin’s eyes flickered.
“The resemblance.”
“To whom?”
“Daniel.”
“You haven’t seen Daniel since he was twenty-six.”
“Neither have you.”
The words landed exactly as Martin intended.
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
Ethan suddenly tugged his sleeve.
“Can we go somewhere else?”
Arthur looked down.
The boy’s face had lost all color.
“Yes.”
He picked up the folded paper Ethan had nearly handed him.
Martin saw it.
“What’s that?”
“None of your concern.”
For the first time in years, Arthur watched his business partner’s calm exterior crack.
“Arthur, there are certain things from the past you may not fully understand.”
“That sounds very much like something a guilty man would say.”
Martin’s expression turned cold.
“Careful.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“I should have been careful twenty-two years ago.”
Neither man moved.
Then Lily coughed.
The sound broke the confrontation.
Arthur called his driver and instructed him to bring the car around.
Martin waited beside the door.
“Where are you taking them?”
Arthur stared at him.
“Why do you care?”
“I care about you.”
“No, Martin. You care about what they might know.”
Martin said nothing.
That silence was more frightening than any denial.
Arthur escorted Ethan and Lily outside.
The black sedan waited beneath falling snow.
Arthur opened the rear door.
Ethan hesitated.
“We can’t go to your house.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody might be watching.”
Arthur stared at him.
“What happened at your foster home?”
Ethan looked toward the bakery windows.
Martin stood behind the glass.
Watching.
“Mom told me never to trust anyone from Bennett Logistics.”
Arthur’s chest tightened.
“That includes me.”
Ethan looked at him.
“I know.”
The honesty hurt.
Arthur climbed into the car with them.
“Take us to St. Matthew’s Children’s Center,” he told his driver.
Ethan panicked.
“No.”
“We’re not returning you to anyone who hurt you. But we need a safe place while I figure out what’s happening.”
Lily whispered, “Mrs. Keene locks Ethan downstairs.”
Arthur turned sharply.
“What?”
Ethan looked furious with his sister.
“Lily.”
“She does.”
Arthur’s voice lowered.
“Who is Mrs. Keene?”
“Our foster mother.”
“Why does she lock you downstairs?”
Ethan stared out the window.
“Because I kept asking questions about Dad.”
Arthur felt something inside him turn dangerously quiet.
“Driver.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Change of destination.”
“Where to?”
“Bennett Tower.”
Ethan spun toward him.
“You said somewhere safe.”
“My office has private security.”
“Martin works there.”
“Not on the executive floor without my permission.”
Ethan still looked uncertain.
Arthur took the faded photograph from his pocket.
“I failed your father.”
The boy’s eyes shifted toward him.
“I believed people I shouldn’t have believed. I judged Daniel when I should have protected him.”
Arthur swallowed.
“I cannot change what I did twenty-two years ago.”
Then he looked at Lily.
“But I can decide what kind of grandfather I become today.”
Ethan studied him for several seconds.
Finally, he nodded.
At Bennett Tower, Arthur used a private elevator reserved for the chairman.
His longtime assistant, Margaret Sloan, stood when the elevator doors opened.
Margaret was seventy-two and had worked for Arthur longer than almost anyone in the building.
She saw the children.
Then she saw the photograph.
Her face changed.
“Dear God.”
Arthur stopped.
“You recognize them?”
Margaret walked slowly toward Ethan.
“You have Daniel’s eyes.”
Ethan took a step backward.
Arthur handed her the photograph.
“Ethan says Daniel is his father.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
“What happened to their mother?”
“She died.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Arthur watched her.
“You knew Daniel had children.”
It wasn’t a question.
Margaret looked at him.
“Yes.”
Arthur felt betrayed all over again.
“For how long?”
“Eleven years.”
“Eleven—”
“Daniel asked me not to tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because after the trial, he believed you wanted nothing to do with him.”
Arthur turned away.
Margaret’s voice softened.
“I tried convincing him otherwise.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“You could have told me.”
“And what would you have done?”
Arthur faced her.
She continued.
“You rejected every letter Daniel sent from prison for six years.”
Arthur’s anger vanished.
Ethan looked toward him.
“You didn’t read Dad’s letters?”
Arthur could not answer.
Because it was true.
During the first years after Daniel’s conviction, prison envelopes had arrived almost monthly.
Arthur returned every one unopened.
Eventually they stopped.
He had told himself Daniel only wanted money.
He had never considered that Daniel might have been trying to explain what happened.
Margaret walked to a locked cabinet.
She removed an old cardboard archive box.
Arthur stared at it.
“What is that?”
“The last letter.”
Arthur’s breath caught.
“You kept it?”
“I couldn’t throw it away.”
She placed the envelope on his desk.
It was dated nineteen years earlier.
Across the front, Daniel had written:
Dad, please read this one. I finally know who set me up.
Arthur looked toward Ethan.
The boy’s hand disappeared into his coat again.
“That’s what Mom told me too.”
He unfolded the paper he had carried from the bakery.
Arthur read the first line.
His knees almost weakened.
It was a list of names.
Martin Cole was at the top.
But there were three others.
One name belonged to Arthur’s former chief accountant.
One belonged to the prosecutor who had sent Daniel to prison.
The last name was impossible.
Arthur stared at it.
“Where did your mother get this?”
“Dad sent it to her.”
Arthur read the final name again.
Richard Bennett.
His younger brother.
The man Arthur had buried six years earlier.
Arthur looked at Margaret.
She had gone pale.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“There’s something you need to know about Richard.”
Arthur’s phone rang.
The caller ID showed Martin Cole.
Arthur declined it.
Immediately, another call appeared.
This one came from the security desk downstairs.
Arthur answered.
“Mr. Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“We have a woman here asking about two children.”
Arthur glanced at Ethan.
“Who?”
“She says she’s their foster mother.”
Ethan jumped to his feet.
“No!”
Lily began crying.
Arthur’s voice hardened.
“Do not send her upstairs.”
The guard hesitated.
“Sir… she isn’t alone.”
Arthur looked toward the security monitor.
“Who’s with her?”
The answer chilled the room.
“Two Chicago police detectives.”
Twenty minutes later, Arthur stood inside his private conference room with Ethan and Lily behind him.
Detective Samuel Price placed a folder on the table.
“Mr. Bennett, the children were reported missing at six this morning.”
“They weren’t missing,” Ethan snapped. “We left.”
Mrs. Diane Keene stood beside the detectives wearing an expensive wool coat Arthur found suspicious for a foster parent supposedly struggling financially.
She smiled at Ethan.
“We were worried sick.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Ethan.”
“You locked me in the basement!”
Detective Price turned.
“Is that true?”
Diane’s expression barely changed.
“He has behavioral issues.”
Arthur’s hands flattened against the table.
“Locking a ten-year-old in a basement isn’t treatment for behavioral issues.”
Diane faced Arthur.
“And who exactly are you to these children?”
Arthur answered without hesitation.
“Their grandfather.”
Silence.
The second detective raised his eyebrows.
Diane looked genuinely startled.
“That isn’t possible.”
“Apparently it is.”
Arthur showed them the photograph.
Detective Price examined it.
“We’ll need documentation.”
“You’ll have it.”
Diane reached for Ethan.
“Come on. We need to go.”
Arthur stepped between them.
“No.”
“Mr. Bennett, these children are legally placed in my care.”
Arthur looked at Detective Price.
“If there is an allegation of abuse, are you seriously returning them without investigation?”
Price shifted uncomfortably.
Diane’s face tightened.
“They lie.”
Lily suddenly whispered, “There’s a camera.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What camera?” Arthur asked.
“In the basement.”
Ethan went pale.
Arthur crouched.
“Lily, tell me what you mean.”
“The red light.”
Ethan squeezed her shoulder.
“Don’t.”
Arthur looked at him.
“What was recorded?”
Ethan’s eyes filled with fear.
“People came to talk to Mrs. Keene.”
“What people?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did they say?”
Ethan swallowed.
“They asked whether Dad gave Mom any papers before she died.”
Arthur slowly stood.
Diane Keene moved toward the door.
“I think this conversation is over.”
“No,” Arthur said.
Detective Price blocked her.
“I think it just started.”
Diane’s face changed.
She looked at Arthur.
“You have no idea what you’re stepping into.”
Arthur smiled without warmth.
“You’re wrong.”
He picked up Daniel’s unopened letter.
May you like
“I’m stepping into something I should have faced nineteen years ago.”
And for the first time since his son went to prison, Arthur Bennett finally broke the seal.
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