by Jen Talty
But this didn’t feel like a truth hidden to protect him. This just felt like a lie. He understood now why Patty had been so upset.
“Holland was the contractor for your grandfather’s new building. The one that is currently corporate headquarters.”
“When was that built?”
“Your mother was about fifteen when it started. Holland Development was just getting started, but Keith Holland was a brilliant architect, and your grandfather took a shine to him. It was too late before we put everything together. Grandpa was devastated. Took him years to get over, though not sure he ever really did.”
Reese had already put together more than he wanted to, the clues so obvious it was impossible to deny. “Holland didn’t finish that project, did he?”
“No,” she said. “A year into it, we realized your mother and Holland had been sleeping together. Your grandfather paid Holland quite a large sum of money to go away.”
“You’re saying he bankrolled Holland’s current empire?”
“Essentially, yes. Your grandpa wasn’t proud of it, but he blackmailed Holland to leave you and your mother alone.”
“Blackmailed him how?”
“Threatened to have him arrested. For statutory rape.”
“Jesus,” Patty said. “You let him get away with it?”
Nana shook her head. “Eleanor, Reese’s mother, thought she was so in love with Holland that she would have run off with him. She tried.”
“What stopped her?” Reese asked.
“Holland hit her a few times. Told her to go home to Daddy. That she wasn’t ready. Of course, Holland was already married to another woman. Eleanor was so naïve, she thought Holland would leave his wife.”
“Did he know she was pregnant?” Reese closed his eyes. He had no memories of his mother from before age two or three, but a few good ones lingered in the recesses of his mind. Playing at a playground. Her reading to him. He couldn’t remember if and when she’d changed, but the rest of his memories were of him putting her to bed. Cleaning up her vomit. Making her breakfast. And sometimes, being left alone for days.
He did the same for Allen. He remembered periods when Allen was clean, but not many. Those four short years, until Reese turned seven and moved in permanently with his grandparents, where still etched so deep into his psyche that there was no erasing them.
“Not then,” Nana said. “When we found out, Grandpa went to Holland and paid him off, holding that over his head, since they had proof of statutory rape.”
Reese had seen his grandfather as invincible. This seemed so out character for him to blackmail anyone. Grandpa had always held people accountable.
“Reese was that proof,” Patty said.
“That is pretty fucked-up,” Reese said. “Mom just went along with this?”
Nana nodded. “She wanted you so badly. We worried she was going to try to get back with Holland. And she did. She took you to the city, to his posh new office. You were about a year old.”
“He met me?”
Nana lowered her head in shame. “I don’t know what happened there that day, other than Eleanor came home, packed up her things, and told us to go to hell. Later, we found out he wouldn’t even see her, and sent someone who worked for him down to tell her if she ever contacted him again, he’d destroy Grandpa. He told her we paid him off. She found out what a monster he was that day. But she also believed we were no better. She took you, and we didn’t see you for an entire year, until she came begging for money. We, of course, gave it to her, to take care of you. She’d been seeing Allen. He was a decent enough fellow.”
“This is insane.” Reese sat next to Patty, who took his hand and gave him a supportive look, even though her eyes had filled with tears. Reese found himself crying as well.
“Allen was the first guy she met after she moved out with you. We tried to get her to leave you with us. But she was eighteen. You were her son. We helped her as best we could. Helped Allen get a decent job, but he was into drugs, and so was your mother.”
“I visited Allen in prison after Mom died. He told me he was sorry, but that was about it.”
“He, and your mom, were meth addicts,” Nana said. “Grandpa told them he’d take care of them if they went straight. That didn’t last long. Then Allen was arrested for murder.”
“So you made that go away. Made me think my father just up and left me.”
Nana nodded. “We thought, and that included your mother, it was best for you. You both moved in with us, and we got her help, but she took off a month later, leaving you with us and eventually giving us custody until she was diagnosed with cancer. She waited too long, and it was too late. Stage four, inoperable and incurable.”
“So, my real father is Keith Holland, who is somehow connected to some pretty bad people, who are now, for whatever reason that I can’t even fathom, either trying to kill the woman I love, or scare us enough to run and hide. Do you happen to know why?”
Patty gripped his hand, and for the first time in a long time, he realized he had someone in his corner, no matter what. He squeezed tighter. He was never letting go.
“No,” she said. “For a while, when you were little, we kept tabs on him, but then we realized he was off doing his own thing, had a family, wife and kids, and had long forgotten about the young girl he’d knocked up. Holland took advantage of a girl half his age,” Nana said. “We were glad to be rid of him. Allen was the lesser of two evils, or so we thought at the time.”
“Allen was sent away for murder.”
“He was a meth addict,” she said. “Outside of that, when he was straight, he was decent. Really, he was.”
“He was a shitty father.”
“Your mother wasn’t going to get Mother of the Year, either,” Nana said. “We just wanted to protect you.”
“This is fucking unbelievable,” Reese said. “You’ve known all along who my father was, and when I went searching for him, you discouraged me. Did it cost you a lot of money to stop my search?”
“I was protecting you.”
“All you did,” Patty said, “was encourage a life of lies, betrayal, and distance from people.”
“How dare you? I didn’t do that, Jessica did,” Nana said.
“No,” Patty said. “How dare you? You should have told Reese the truth. You should have let his mother—”
“Once Keith refused to see her, and their baby,” Nana interrupted, “she begged us to make sure Reese never knew. When she and Allen first got together, we didn’t know he did drugs, or that Eleanor was doing them. We paid for rehab many times, for both of them. He got straight a few times because of Reese, and he was always good to that boy. He married her, and if he could have stayed off drugs, he’d have been a good father. I know that with everything I am.”
“What about my birth certificate? It clearly states that Allen is my father.”
“We thought that best.”
“Of course you did.” Reese slammed his fist on the table, and then stormed out of the room.
* * *
Patty followed Reese upstairs to the master bedroom. He’d slammed that door shut as well. She didn’t bother knocking. He had every right to be mad as hell. Probably a whole lot of hurt and confusion. She knew exactly how that felt.
But they weren’t the ones putting each other in such pain and anguish. It would be so easy for him to push all that down, stuffing it so deep in his soul that he’d never be able to connect to a single person again. She wasn’t going to let him do that. Not now. Not ever.
“Hey.”
He stood in front of the picture window, overlooking the lake, his hands on his hips, his back to her.
“You can’t change what they did,” she said.
“I know.” His voice was steady, but his tone bitter. “I think, deep down, I’ve always known Nana knew who my father was, but I was too scared to find out, so I never tired that hard. Then Jessica, and the baby she aborted. I thought I’d be able to stop the madne
ss. All I did was make it a legacy.”
“Not true.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, clasping her hands up by his chest, where she could feel his heart beating. She rested her head on his shoulder. “And even if it were true, you still have the power to change it with our baby.”
He let out a long sigh. “I don’t want to screw this kid up.”
“You won’t.”
“I wish I believed that,” Reese said. “I have to wonder why my mother would tell me…make me question who my father was...on her death bed. What was the point?”
“People do weird things when they’re dying.”
“I guess that’s one answer I’ll never know.” He raised her hands then kissed them. “I’m a little shocked you haven’t run to Harmon Hill as fast as possible to get away from the shit-storm that is my family.”
“The thought has crossed my mind. But as you’ve been saying to me, I’m in this for the long haul.”
“I’ve got to deal with this Holland thing.”
Patty knew that to be the absolute truth, and it was more than just business. Now, it was personal. “I think I really need to rest. It’s been a fucked-up couple of days.”
“That’s being polite,” he said. “I brought in the mail.” He tossed a few things on the bed.
She kicked off her shoes then puffed up some pillows before settling in. “Great,” she said. “Anything from Conrad? He said he sent over the severance deal, which means a check, and I have bills to pay.”
Reese plopped down on the bed next to her and stared at the ceiling. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Not telling you about being married. I should have done that long before the baby ever came around.”
“I hate to admit it, but I understand why you didn’t tell me, but that was then, this is now. We know what secrets do to people.” Most of the mail was junk, but an envelope from her former employer was at the bottom, much thicker than she expected for a last paycheck. She fiddled with the edges. “Just promise me that you will be honest with me going forward.”
“I can do that,” he said. “Jesus. Holland has known all along I’m his son, and he’s been doing this shit to me. To us. He spouts shit about his family, and wanting a place for them, yet technically, I’m family.”
“Sperm doesn’t make one a father, or family.” She opened the envelope then pulled out a folder. On top was a note from Conrad that read, I’m sorry to do this to you, but please help me. Patty flipped open the file then started reading. It took a few minutes for the information to register.
“None of this makes any sense. Maybe that’s why I didn’t push too hard when it came to my biological father. I think I was afraid he didn’t want me. I guess it just seems like Holland is going to a lot of trouble when it comes to the hotel and—”
“Reese?”
“Do you think he just wants to make me go away, or bring me into the fold?”
“Reese.” She continued to scan the papers, ignoring his rant until one piece of paper stood out.
“You think this is all crazy, don’t you?”
“Reese!”
“What?”
“I think I just found your smoking gun.”
Chapter Fifteen
REESE WHITE-KNUCKLED it to the station. He wished he had a parole car, so he could use the sirens to go flying around everyone. Now, he just looked like an asshole driver, but he didn’t care. Jared had already left for the day, but said he’d head back to help with this situation. Frank and Stacey had been holding down the fort, and a couple of the regional guys were on patrol.
The truck tires squealed as he turned into the parking lot. He wasted no time gathering everything Conrad had sent over and racing into the station house. “Big room,” he said, but everyone was already there ahead of him.
“So what, exactly, does Holland have on Conrad?” Stacey had rearranged the information on the boards in line with the few things Reese had told her over the phone.
“A couple of things.” Reese spread out the paperwork on the conference table. “A couple of dicey pictures of him with women other than his wife.”
“Everyone knows that about him,” Frank said. “He thinks he’s discreet, but he’s not. And I don’t think his wife cares.”
“That’s what Patty said.” Reese figured that had been Holland’s first attempt at blackmailing Conrad, and it didn’t work. “But look at this.” He pinned a letter up on the corkboard indicating that not only had Conrad never finished his law degree, but he never even took the bar.
“How is that even possible?” Stacey asked.
“I’ve learned a lot of the impossible can be possible, these days,” Reese said.
“That’s very interesting.” Jared took down the letter and read it again. “What else?”
Reese handed over a bunch of other paperwork regarding Conrad and school. “Graduating class list, and he’s not on it. Forged law license.”
“Who did all this for him?” Jared asked.
“That, we don’t know,” Reese admitted, “but I suspect someone associated with Holland. A few years ago, Holland approached Conrad to go over some accounting on a construction site. Said he needed an outside firm.” Once again, Reese was pinning things up, and Jared was taking them down, then passing them to Frank and Stacey. Reese gave up and handed everything over to Jared. “Conrad found nothing wrong. Holland pushed him to find something wrong. Hence, Terry was fired for stealing money from the company.”
“Okay,” Jared said. “But can we backtrack a little more? Do we know why Terry had some high-priced attorney to get him out of his troubles?”
“A little fuzzy on that, but in the note to Patty from Conrad, he explains that Terry was some kind of muscle for Holland. Holland got pissed that Terry got caught more than once, and wanted to get rid of him.”
“Makes perfect sense,” Stacey said. “But doesn’t explain Holland’s infatuation with the Heritage or put any blame on him for Patty’s rats, tires, or the trees coming down on Doug’s truck.”
“That’s where it gets really weird.” Reese straddled a chair and took in one very long, calming breath. “Open the file. Conrad had been doing some of his own digging into Holland, trying to find a way out from under him, and it turns out he was able to connect Holland back to my grandfather.”
“Now, that is interesting,” Stacey said as she tried unsuccessfully to yank the files from Jared. “What’s the connection?”
“Holland was the developer for my grandfather’s office building, but Holland didn’t finish it.”
Jared passed the file on. “That’s all it says. But something tells me there is more.”
“A lot more,” Reese said. “Conrad hit a dead-end because, like my grandfather, Holland is very smart, and they both made sure their little under-the-table deal was under lock and key. The only other person who really knew the details was my Nana.”
“She filled you in?” Jared asked.
“The short version is, Holland was messing around with my mother, she was underage, and my grandfather paid him off to go away. Holland went away.”
“Holland is your—”
“Frank,” Reese said. “Don’t say it, okay?”
The room went silent for a long moment as everyone digested that piece of information, along with everything else.
“Where’s the smoking gun?”
“Conrad put a signed statement and a confession for his part in framing Terry in the paperwork he sent to Patty. He also kept track of everything illegal or near-illegal that Holland was asking him to do regarding the purchase of the casino site and the Heritage Inn. I sent a copy to the Feds. Just waiting for a warrant. Feds said they’d let one of us go with them.”
“What’s the charge?” Frank asked.
“A shitload of things,” Reese said.
“Okay, but what I don’t get is, why go after you if you’re kin?” Jared said. “I think he’d want you to be in the fold. Part of th
e empire?”
“One would think,” Reese said. “But my PI friend says Holland wanted to wash his hands of the whole thing, because his wife and family think I’m just a bastard who doesn’t deserve their respect or their money, and they see my purchase of the Heritage Inn as a slap in the face. I’m a bastard who is in the way of what he wants.”
“Why didn’t Conrad just come to us?” Stacey asked.
“Holland said he’d kill his family and make it look like Conrad did it,” Reese said. “I believe Holland could have easily done that, considering everything that has happened to Patty.”
“That is one nasty motherfucker.” Frank tossed a few pieces of paper on the table.
The pun wasn’t lost on Reese, though he doubted it was intentional. “We can nail his ass for a lot of things, but we’ll never get him for the trailer or the rats.”
“Can you live with that?” Jared asked.
“I have to live with the knowledge that he was—is…fuck. Yeah. I can live it, with it as long as that asshole is in jail.”
* * *
“You must think I’m a horrible person,” Nana said.
“Not horrible,” Patty said. “Misguided, perhaps.” She didn’t like being so abrupt with Reese’s Nana, but the lies were going to end now. No way would she bring a child into this world, in this situation, if honesty wasn’t going to be the path to happiness. “Is there anything else Reese doesn’t know?”
“I’ve told you both everything.”
“Had all this been out from the get-go, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, because Reese wouldn’t have been so closed-off.”
“That’s where you are wrong,” Nana said. “You didn’t know him before Jessica. That woman tore his heart out, and he never recovered. He never allowed himself to, until you.”
