Chapter 13: My Mother’s Choice
My mother was arrested at the family estate.
She requested to speak with me before formal questioning.
I almost refused.
Then I remembered every time she had defended Preston.
Every time she had told me to stay quiet.
Every moment she had chosen the family image over the people inside it.
I needed to hear her explanation.
She sat behind a glass partition at the county detention center.
Her silver wedding gown had been replaced with a gray jail uniform.
Without the jewelry and perfect hair, she looked older.
Smaller.
But not sorry.
“You let Martin take Sophie,” I said.
“I didn’t know he would take her.”
“You stole her flower basket.”
“To protect the family.”
“You forged my signature.”
“To protect the company.”
“You helped create documents stealing Sophie’s inheritance.”
Her face tightened.
“That money would have destroyed Preston.”
“No. Consequences would have changed Preston. You made sure he never faced any.”
“You don’t understand what it means to preserve a legacy.”
“David understood.”
For the first time, her composure cracked.
“What did Ruth leave you?”
“Proof.”
My mother looked away.
“You knew about David’s death.”
“I knew Martin had threatened him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Silence.
I leaned closer to the glass.
“Did you know he arranged the crash?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I knew afterward.”
“And you stayed.”
“He was my husband.”
“David was mine.”
She flinched.
“And Sophie is your granddaughter.”
My mother lowered her voice.
“Martin said if I went to the police, he would destroy Preston too.”
“He already destroyed Preston.”
“No. Preston made his own choices.”
It was the first honest thing she had said.
“He chose the theft,” she continued. “He chose the phone. He chose what he did to Sophie.”
“Then why did you protect him?”
“Because mothers protect their children.”
I stared at her.
“So do I.”
She finally understood.
I wasn’t going to withdraw the charges.
I wasn’t going to preserve the family name.
I wasn’t going to remain silent.
As I stood to leave, she touched the glass.
“Evelyn.”
I turned.
“There’s something else in Martin’s office.”
“The police searched it.”
“They didn’t find everything.”
She gave me a set of numbers.
A combination.
“What does it open?”
“A safe beneath the floor.”
“What’s inside?”
“The records Martin kept on everyone he paid.”
“Including the truck driver?”
Her face answered before her words did.
“Yes.”
Police returned to the estate.
The hidden floor safe contained payment ledgers, photographs, recorded calls, and a signed statement from the driver involved in David’s crash.
But another file was missing.
A black folder labeled with my name.
Security footage showed someone removing it from the safe two hours before my mother’s arrest.
May you like
The person wore a hotel uniform.
Daniel Cho’s hotel uniform.
