Chapter 8 - JENNA'S CONFESSION
I called Mom before Noah could stop me.
She did not answer.
I called again.
Voicemail.
The third time, she declined the call.
That hurt more than silence should have.
Elena told me not to chase explanations before we understood the records.
She was right.
I hated that everyone sensible kept being right while my family kept getting worse.
At four twelve, Jenna texted me.
Jenna: I need to tell you what happened.
I stared at the message.
Noah read it over my shoulder.
"Could be a trap."
"Probably."
Jenna: Not Mom's house.
Jenna: Not your house.
Jenna: Somewhere public.
A third message followed.
Jenna: Adrian lied to me too.
I felt no sympathy.
Maybe that made me cruel.
At that moment, I could live with cruel.
We agreed to meet at a crowded coffee shop beside the county courthouse.
Noah sat two tables away.
Elena remained at his house with the financial records.
Jenna arrived twenty minutes late wearing sunglasses despite the cloudy afternoon.
She looked smaller than she had at Mom's dinner.
Not innocent.
Just frightened.
She sat across from me and kept both hands wrapped around a cup she never drank from.
"You look tired," she said.
I stared at her.
"Don't."
She looked down.
"Right."
We sat in silence until she started crying.
I did not reach for her.
That was new for both of us.
"How long?" I asked.
She wiped beneath one eye.
"Since February."
Eight months.
Long enough to include my anniversary.
Long enough to include the day Adrian and I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time.
Long enough to include the night Jenna slept in our guest room because she said she was too upset after her breakup to be alone.
I remembered making her tea while my husband carried her suitcase upstairs.
My stomach turned.
"Where?"
She flinched.
"Claire."
"Where did you sleep with my husband?"
"A hotel mostly."
"My house?"
Her silence answered.
I looked away.
The coffee shop windows faced the courthouse steps.
People walked in and out carrying folders, coffee, umbrellas, ordinary problems.
I envied them.
"How many times in my house?"
"Twice."
My throat tightened.
"While I was there?"
"No."
"While I was pregnant?"
She started crying harder.
"Yes."
I felt nothing for several seconds.
Then the anger came back, cleaner than grief.
"Why did you impersonate me?"
"He told me you asked him to fix the trust situation before the baby came."
"What trust situation?"
"He said Dad's rules were creating problems for you."
"Dad's rules protected me from exactly this."
"I know that now."
"You knew enough then to wear my coat, use my license, and pretend to be me."
Jenna covered her face.
"He said you were embarrassed."
"Embarrassed about what?"
"About needing Adrian to handle the money."
I laughed.
It came out cold.
"I manage two companies."
"I know."
"I handled Dad's estate when you couldn't even open the mail because it made you sad."
"I know."
"Why would you believe I suddenly needed Adrian to manage my money?"
She looked at me then.
The answer was ugly before she said it.
"Because I wanted to believe him."
There it was.
Not confusion.
Not innocence.
Desire.
She had believed the version that let her have what she wanted.
"What did he promise you?"
Jenna stared into her coffee.
"That he was leaving you after the baby was born."
I felt my fingers curl against the table.
"Why after?"
"He said leaving during the pregnancy would make him look terrible in court."
"Court?"
"He said you would fight him over everything."
"Everything meaning the baby?"
She hesitated.
"And money."
"Of course."
"He said he didn't want your inheritance."
I almost smiled.
"That's creative."
"He told me the trust amendment was just to make sure bills could be paid if something happened during delivery."
"And the power of attorney?"
Her eyes widened.
"What power of attorney?"
I watched her carefully.
"The one Daniel found on the train."
"I never saw that."
For the first time, I believed her surprise.
Not because she deserved trust.
Because fear is hard to fake when someone realizes a conspiracy is larger than the part they agreed to play.
"Did you know Adrian contacted my doctor?"
"No."
"Did you know he told people I had a psychiatric condition?"
Her face changed.
"He told me you were depressed."
"He told my doctor I stopped taking medication that never existed."
Jenna went pale.
"Why would he do that?"
"So he could get an incapacity form signed."
She stared at me.
Then she whispered something I almost missed.
"That wasn't supposed to happen until the hospital."
I went completely still.
"What did you just say?"
Jenna realized her mistake.
"Nothing."
"What was supposed to happen at the hospital?"
"Claire, I didn't know the details."
"You knew enough to say that."
Noah had stopped pretending not to listen.
He was watching us from the next table.
Jenna's hands began shaking.
"Adrian said there would be papers after delivery."
"What papers?"
"I don't know."
"Jenna."
"He said you would be tired and he would take care of administrative things."
My voice dropped.
"And where would you be?"
She looked down.
"Waiting."
"For what?"
"For him to leave you."
I leaned back.
My sister had planned a future around the moment after I gave birth.
The cruelty of it was so precise that it almost felt unreal.
"Did Mom know?"
Jenna swallowed.
"She knew about us."
"How long?"
"June."
"She knew for three months."
"She told me to end it."
"But she lied for you last night."
"Because she didn't want the family to explode."
"The family had already exploded."
"Mom doesn't see it that way."
No.
Mom believed the explosion happened when someone acknowledged the damage, not when the damage was done.
"Why did she hire a private investigator to follow me?"
Jenna's head snapped up.
"What?"
I showed her the invoice photo.
She read it twice.
"I didn't know about this."
"Did Adrian?"
"Probably."
"Why?"
She hesitated.
"He kept asking whether you were seeing anyone."
I stared at her.
"While he was sleeping with you?"
"He said if you cheated first, the divorce would be easier."
I laughed so loudly that two people turned to look.
The absurdity was almost unbearable.
Adrian had been having an affair with my sister while paying someone to find evidence that I was unfaithful.
"Did the investigator find anything?"
"There was nothing to find."
Jenna looked ashamed.
"Adrian got angry about that."
"How do you know?"
"Because I heard him arguing with Mom."
"About me?"
"About the report."
She lowered her voice.
"He said he needed leverage before the baby came."
Noah stood and walked toward us.
"What kind of leverage?"
Jenna looked at him nervously.
"I don't know."
"Then tell us what you do know."
She stared at the table for a long time.
Finally, she reached into her bag and placed a brass key between us.
A white plastic tag hung from it.
U-314.
"What's that?" I asked.
"A storage unit."
"Whose?"
"Adrian's."
"Where?"
"Union Storage near the old freight terminal."
Noah picked up the key but did not pocket it.
"How did you get this?"
"He gave me a spare because he kept things there he didn't want Claire to see."
I looked at my sister.
"What things?"
"Documents."
"My documents?"
"Some."
"What else?"
Jenna's face tightened.
"Cash."
Noah and I exchanged a look.
"How much?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"Estimate."
"Maybe a hundred thousand."
My heart started beating faster.
"Why keep cash in a storage unit?"
"He said it was emergency money."
I almost asked emergency from what.
Then Jenna reached into her bag again.
This time she pulled out an old phone.
"There's more."
She slid it across the table.
"He gave me this so we could talk without your phone records showing his number."
I stared at the device.
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"Because he changed the password on the apartment this morning."
"What apartment?"
Her eyes filled with fresh tears.
"The one he told me we were going to live in together."
I said nothing.
"And because I went there after dinner last night."
Her voice shook.
"There was another woman inside."
Noah frowned.
"Who?"
Jenna looked directly at me.
May you like
"Victor Hale's wife."
