Chapter 8 - THE MONEY ROBERT CALLED HIS
Thomas called Leah immediately.
This time she answered.
Neither of them said hello.
“What money?”
Leah exhaled shakily.
“Thomas, I need you to listen before you decide what kind of person I am.”
“I’m listening.”
“Three years ago, I wanted Jacob for more weekends.”
“I remember.”
“You said no because I was living with Derek and he had that DUI.”
“Yes.”
“You were right.”
Thomas did not expect that.
Leah continued.
“I didn’t think so then.”
“I was furious.”
“I called your mother because she had always told me she wanted me to be more involved.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Of course she had.
“What happened?”
“Your dad called me the next day.”
“He asked to meet at a coffee shop.”
“He said he could help me avoid a court fight.”
“How?”
“He offered me twenty-five thousand dollars if I agreed not to seek more parenting time for two years.”
Thomas’s hand tightened around the phone.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
“If they thought I was an unfit father, why would they pay you to stay away?”
“I asked him that.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Jacob needed stability.”
“He said you were useful as long as you were earning money and not being distracted by custody fights.”
Thomas felt physically ill.
Leah continued.
“He said when the time was right, the family would ‘reorganize things.’”
Those words sounded exactly like Robert.
“Why did you take the money?”
Leah was silent.
Thomas immediately regretted the sharpness in his voice.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
“You get to ask.”
She took a breath.
“I had twelve hundred dollars in my account.”
“My car needed a transmission.”
“I was behind on rent.”
“Derek had just lost his job.”
“And I was angry enough at you to believe your dad when he said Jacob was better off without us fighting.”
Thomas leaned against his car.
“Where did the money come from?”
“I didn’t know at the time.”
“What changed?”
“Six months later, your mother called me by accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“She thought she was calling somebody else.”
“She was yelling before I could speak.”
“She said, ‘Robert, you cannot keep pulling from Thomas’s accounts every time you need to fix one of your messes.’”
Thomas went cold.
“What did Robert say?”
“I only heard your mother.”
“She realized I was on the line and hung up.”
“Did you ask them?”
“Your dad called ten minutes later.”
“He said if I ever repeated what I heard, he would tell you I had blackmailed him for money.”
Thomas stared across the school parking lot.
Dana stood a few feet away, listening to his side of the conversation.
“Do you still have the check record?”
“I sent you the picture.”
“Do you have bank statements showing the deposit?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any messages from my parents?”
Leah hesitated.
“Some.”
“Save everything.”
“I already did.”
Thomas frowned.
“Why?”
“Because your father called me yesterday.”
Thomas’s stomach dropped.
“What did he want?”
“He wanted me to sign a declaration.”
“About what?”
“That you threatened me into giving up time with Jacob.”
Thomas laughed once in disbelief.
“He paid you to stay away, and now he wants you to say I forced you?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him I would think about it.”
Thomas went silent.
Leah added quickly, “Because I wanted him to keep talking.”
Thomas looked at Dana.
Dana’s eyes sharpened.
“Did you record him?” Thomas asked.
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
“Send it to me.”
“I will.”
“Leah.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for telling me.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
“There’s something you need to hear in the recording.”
“What?”
“Your father tells me what he wants from you.”
Thomas’s entire body stilled.
“What does he want?”
“Not the kids.”
Thomas stared ahead.
“Then what?”
“Your restaurants.”
The line went quiet.
Thomas had spent days wondering how custody, forged invoices, and family humiliation fit together.
Now the first clear shape appeared.
“Explain.”
“I can’t explain what I don’t understand.”
“But he says if you ‘remember who made you,’ this can all go away.”
“He says you need to put the businesses back where they belong.”
Thomas felt anger rise so fast he had to breathe through it.
“My father never owned one percent of either diner.”
“I know.”
“Did he say a percentage?”
“No.”
“Send the recording.”
Leah did.
Thomas and Dana listened in Dana’s car with the doors closed.
Robert’s voice was unmistakable.
“You don’t need to lie, Leah.”
Thomas nearly laughed at the audacity.
Robert continued.
“You simply need to explain that Thomas uses money to control people.”
Leah’s recorded voice asked, “Like when you paid me?”
There was a pause.
“That was family assistance.”
“From whose account?”
Another pause.
“You don’t need to concern yourself with accounting.”
Leah pressed him.
“Was it Thomas’s money?”
Robert’s voice hardened.
“Everything Thomas has exists because of this family.”
“That boy walked into his first restaurant with opportunities I created.”
Thomas stared at the dashboard.
That was false.
Robert had refused to co-sign the first lease.
He had called the diner a “grease trap fantasy.”
The recording continued.
Leah asked, “So what do you want from him?”
Robert replied, “Recognition.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he stops pretending those businesses belong only to him.”
Thomas looked at Dana.
Robert continued.
“He has spent years distributing family resources as if he were doing charity.”
“He pays this bill.”
“He helps that cousin.”
“He covers his mother’s mortgage and expects gratitude.”
“He forgot there is a hierarchy.”
Leah asked, “And the kids?”
“They are leverage only because he made them leverage.”
Thomas stopped the recording.
For a moment, neither he nor Dana spoke.
Then Dana said, “That is useful.”
Thomas looked at her in disbelief.
“Useful?”
“I know what you want to call it.”
“I’m telling you what I can do with it.”
She tapped the phone.
“He is connecting the custody threat to a demand involving your businesses.”
“He is also describing the children as leverage.”
Thomas stared out the windshield.
“He never wanted them.”
Dana did not answer.
“He wanted me afraid.”
“Probably.”
Thomas’s eyes burned.
“He made Rebecca cry for a camera.”
“He took Samuel’s inhaler.”
“He made Jacob scrub tables.”
“For leverage.”
Dana’s voice softened.
“Thomas.”
He looked at her.
“Do not let understanding the motive make you underestimate the custody threat.”
“If they have enough people willing to lie, they can still create chaos.”
Thomas nodded.
He knew she was right.
That afternoon, Monica arrived from Seattle.
Samuel ran into her arms in the airport pickup lane.
Monica held him so tightly he complained he could not breathe.
She loosened her grip immediately.
“Sorry.”
Samuel grinned.
“It’s okay.”
Then Monica saw Thomas’s face.
“Bad?”
“Worse.”
They drove home.
Monica listened to Robert’s recording after the children went to bed.
She did not speak for almost a minute afterward.
Then she said, “He did something like this to me too.”
Thomas looked up.
“You told me about the ten thousand dollars.”
“Not that.”
Monica pulled out her phone.
“I kept an email because it made me uncomfortable.”
She searched for it.
“It’s from eight years ago.”
She handed Thomas the screen.
The email was from Helen.
Monica, I hope someday you understand that Thomas cannot carry the responsibility of deciding what is best for every child and every woman in his life.
A family needs a center.
Robert and I have always been that center.
Thomas read the words twice.
Then he reached the last paragraph.
If Thomas ever becomes unwilling to listen, we may have to use the only things he values enough to bring him back into alignment.
Monica had replied with one line.
Do not talk about my son like he is a tool.
Helen never answered.
Thomas looked at the date.
Eight years earlier.
His parents had been thinking this way long before Sunday’s party.
His phone buzzed.
Dana had sent a message.
CALL ME NOW.
Thomas called.
Dana answered immediately.
“They filed.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
“What are they asking for?”
“Emergency temporary guardianship pending a hearing.”
Thomas’s hand tightened around the phone.
“On what grounds?”
Dana inhaled slowly.
“Neglect.”
“Emotional instability.”
“Unsafe work conditions.”
“And alleged witness intimidation at the birthday party.”
Thomas almost laughed.
“They humiliated my kids and called my reaction intimidation?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a hearing?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Thomas looked at Monica.
Dana continued.
“And Thomas, there’s an attachment we did not have before.”
“What?”
“A sworn declaration supposedly from Leah.”
Thomas went still.
“She didn’t sign anything.”
“I know.”
“I just spoke to her.”
May you like
Dana’s voice sharpened.
“Then somebody filed another false signature.”
