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And then I picked up the checkbook. The checkbook was for an account at a Swiss bank. The sole transaction on this statement was dated for December 2, 2001.
I pulled out my phone and look at a picture I took weeks ago. The picture of the blackmailer’s note Milly’s dad left as a clue for their mother. It was as I feared. The bank name, account number, and routing on the note were the same as the bank name, account number, and routing number on this checkbook.
I just made it to the bathroom when the nausea roiling in my stomach overwhelmed me.
I sat there for an hour, stunned at what I’d found. I couldn’t make any sense of it. My parents, one or both of them, blackmailed Milly’s father. They are the reason he left town. They are the reason he cleaned out his bank accounts. They are the reason Milly’s family was destroyed. They are the reason the woman I love has lived without her father for all of these years.
I sat there until the sun set. I didn’t know what to do, all I knew was that I had to show Milly. Then, I walked out to my rental car, put the envelope into my carry-on, and drove back to the airport to catch a flight back to Washington.
I called Cristal. I asked her to go to my office, pick up my passport, and meet me at the international terminal at Dulles. Then I booked a flight for Marseille. I was going to confront my mother. Now. And then, I’ll come back here and wait for Milly to get back from her trip with her family. And when she does, I’ll tell her everything.
36
* * *
Simon’s proposal was a fairy tale brought to life. Addie was uncharacteristically emotional, but we all were. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Then, we had an amazing dinner at a legendary restaurant in Versailles.
We had all just gone to sleep when my mother’s phone rang. She never silences her phone and keeps the volume on her ringer turned up as loud as it will go.
Therefore, when it starts to ring right after midnight, I hear it in the room I'm sharing with Anthony. But that’s not what gets me out of my bed and racing into the suite’s living room, crossing it in three strides and opening my mother’s door without knocking. It’s the yelling that does it.
She is yelling to whoever is on the other end of the phone. Lilly is standing there just watching her, eyes huge and hand clasped over her mouth.
“I’m on my way back. He has a lawyer. I’m calling his lawyer. You can’t talk to him without his lawyer present.”
She's throwing clothes into her suitcase, frantically packing her things. When she's done screaming demands into the phone, she throws it down and runs into her bathroom.
“Mom, what in the world is going on?” I follow her and see her scooping toiletries haphazardly into her little travel sized bag.
She turns around and without stopping, runs back into her room, yelling back at me over her shoulder. “Your father turned himself in. They have him. They are on their way back to DC right now. I’m going to meet him.”
My heart hammers against my chest, my scalp prickles with the nerve impulses speeding through my body as I try to process what she's saying. I shake my head to free myself from my stupor and look at her.
She is moving like a dervish throwing her clothes on. I have to grab her shoulders to make her stop.
“Mom, stop. Please. Tell me what’s going on,” I say forcefully.
She shakes herself free. “Are you deaf, Milly? I just told you. Your father’s in FBI custody. I need to get to him.”
While she turns back to her bed, I look up at Lilly for help, but she has left the room.
How can any of this be happening. Why is my mother so . . . excited? Because that’s what she is. She doesn’t seem nervous, or scared, or shocked. She seems joyfully excited.
I run to stand in between my mother and her suitcase.
“Mom, you said he has a lawyer. How do you know that?” I demand.
She looks at me like I don’t have the sense I was born with and purses her lips while she rolls her eyes.
“Because, I helped him hire one. How else would I know?" And then my mother, all five feet two inches of her, puts her hand on my arm and shoves me out of the way to continue packing. “You’re wasting time asking questions. If you want answers come with me. I'm leaving now.”
My head is spinning. I run back to my room to call Addie. I let her know what has happened, worrying how she will react to the news. But she only offers to help us pack. So, I start packing our things and prepare to travel with my mother.
Less than two hours later, we are at the airport, buying our plane tickets for DC. Addie decided to come with us in the end. And for my mother and my sisters, it is so reminiscent of the last time our father threw our family into chaos. But this time, my mother seems focused and not the least bit unnerved.
I’m not as scared as I was before, because I’m going home to Dean. It’s only as we are buckling ourselves into airplane seats I realize in the craziness of this day I didn’t speak to him once.
I check on Anthony who is already asleep again, and then close my own eyes, knowing when I open them again, I’ll be on my way to see the two men I love most in this world.
