Chapter Four
1130 Words
**EMMA**
My mother's bakery smelled like cinnamon and regret. I sat at the corner table with a coffee I actually wanted to drink, watching June Walsh knead dough with practiced efficiency.
"You're reorganizing napkins," she said without looking up. "What happened?"
"Nathan showed up at the bookstore yesterday."
Her hands stilled. "And?"
"And he says he's changed. That he wants me back. That he quit his job."
"Did he actually quit or is he just saying that?"
"I don't know. Probably just saying it."
Mom wiped her hands on her apron and sat across from me. "What do you want, sweetheart?"
"I want to stop feeling like this. I want to stop wondering if I made a mistake leaving. I want to be happy with Marcus without Nathan's ghost hanging over everything."
"Are you happy with Marcus?"
I thought about his patience, his kindness, the way he looked at me like I mattered. "I could be. If I let myself."
"But you're not letting yourself."
"How can I when Nathan just showed up saying everything I wanted to hear two years ago?"
Mom reached across and squeezed my hand. "Your father used to say that timing is everything. Right person, wrong time is still wrong."
"Dad would've hated that Nathan missed his funeral."
Something flickered across her face. Pain, maybe. Or something darker.
"Mom?"
"There's something I need to tell you about your father's death."
My stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"
"I've been carrying this for six months and I can't anymore. Not with Nathan back in your life." She took a shaky breath. "The week before your father died, he received threatening letters. Someone wanted him to keep quiet about something he'd discovered."
"What? Why didn't you tell the police?"
"Because I was scared. Because the letters said if he talked, something would happen to you and Riley. I thought if I just stayed quiet, if I let it go, you girls would be safe."
"What did Dad discover?"
"I don't know exactly. Something about a client at the mechanic shop. Someone powerful. He told me he was going to report it but then—" Her voice broke. "Then he had the heart attack."
"You think someone killed him?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm paranoid. Maybe the stress just got to him. But Emma, those letters existed. I burned them because I was terrified, but they were real."
My mind was racing. "Who was the client?"
"He never said the name. Just that it was someone from the city. Someone with connections."
The door chimed. We both looked up.
Riley stood there, her face pale. "We need to talk. Now."
****************
**NATHAN**
David called at six in the morning.
"You're not going to believe this," he said without preamble. "I've been up all night going through those documents Kyle sent you."
"And?"
"Your father had George Walsh's heart medication tampered with. There's a paper trail. Pharmacy records, email exchanges with someone at the compounding pharmacy, everything."
I felt sick. "Why would he do that?"
"Because George Walsh serviced your father's personal vehicles and discovered something. I'm still piecing it together, but it looks like your father was using his position to sabotage his own clients' cases."
"What?"
"He was throwing cases on purpose, taking bribes from opposing counsel. George found documents in one of the cars, recognized names from news articles about major lawsuits. He was going to expose everything."
"So Dad killed him."
"That's what it looks like. Nathan, this is bad. Really bad. If this gets out, your father goes to prison. The firm collapses. Every case he's ever touched gets reopened."
"Emma," I whispered. "Her father died because of my family."
"You didn't know."
"That doesn't matter. I'm still a Cole. I'm still connected to this."
"What are you going to do?"
"I have to tell her."
"Nathan, wait. Think about this. If you tell Emma, she'll hate you. She'll never forgive you."
"She deserves to know the truth."
"And what about the person threatening you? They clearly don't want this coming out."
"I don't care about threats. Emma's father died because of mine. I have to make this right."
"By destroying any chance you have with her?"
I closed my eyes. David was right. If I told Emma, she'd never look at me the same way. But if I didn't tell her, I was just another Cole hiding the truth.
"Send me everything you have. I need to see it all."
"Nathan….."
"Just send it."
An hour later, I was staring at proof that my father was a murderer. Email after email, document after document. George Walsh had been a good man trying to do the right thing, and my father had killed him for it.
There was a knock at my door. I opened it without thinking.
Riley Walsh stood there, her eyes blazing with fury.
"You son of a b***h," she said.
"Riley, I—"
"I know what your father did. I know everything." She shoved past me into the room. "I've been investigating Robert Cole for three months. I have copies of every document, every email, every piece of evidence showing he murdered my father."
"How did you—"
"I'm a forensic investigator. Did you really think I'd just accept that my perfectly healthy father dropped dead of a heart attack out of nowhere?" She turned on me. "The question is, what did you know and when did you know it?"
"Nothing. I swear, I just found out yesterday."
"Convenient timing. Right when you show up trying to win my sister back."
"Riley, I had no idea. You have to believe me."
"Why should I believe anything a Cole says?" She pulled out her phone. "I'm calling Emma right now. She deserves to know what kind of family she almost married into."
"Wait. Please." I grabbed her arm. "Don't tell her like this. Let me do it. Let me be the one to explain."
"So you can spin it? Make yourself look like the hero?"
"No. So I can take responsibility. So she hears it from me, not secondhand."
Riley stared at me, her jaw clenched. "You have twenty-four hours. If you don't tell her by tomorrow night, I will. And Nathan? When she finds out, she's going to hate you. You know that, right?"
"I know."
"Good." She headed for the door, then paused. "For what it's worth, I actually believed you'd changed. I thought maybe you deserved a second chance."
"And now?"
She looked back at me with disgust. "Now I know you're just another Cole. And Coles destroy everything they touch."
The door slammed behind her.
I had twenty-four hours to tell Emma that my father killed hers.
Twenty-four hours before I lost her forever.
- Writer
