Chapter 7: My Brother's Choice
Brandon called me that night at nine forty-three.
I was at Lucas's apartment.
We had changed out of our wedding clothes hours ago.
Someone had ordered food neither of us had eaten.
The USB drive was already with Commander Hayes, logged as supplementary evidence.
My mother was at her attorney's office on the other side of the city.
I answered on the second ring.
"Where are you?" Brandon said.
His voice was tight.
"Lucas's apartment.
Where are you?"
"Dad's.
He called me after he left the chapel.
Victoria, I need you to listen to me."
I sat down.
"I'm listening."
"He says Mom set him up.
He says she's been building a case against him for years, moving money into her own account, signing documents to make it look like he authorized everything, and now she's handing it to the feds to save herself."
"Brandon—"
"Just let me finish.
He says Lucas has been working with the task force for six months and never told you.
That he used you to get close to the family.
That the whole relationship was—"
"Stop," I said.
"Victoria—"
"I said stop." I kept my voice steady.
"I need you to hear me.
Not Dad.
Me."
Silence.
"Lucas came to the task force because a veteran client brought him a case.
He found evidence of fraud and he reported it.
He didn't use me.
He tried to tell me three times and didn't know how." I paused.
"Mom has been documenting Dad's activity for eleven years.
She signed that account authorization because she needed a paper trail that led somewhere specific.
She built a record because she was trapped and she was protecting herself.
And when Dad humiliated me this morning in front of everyone, she decided she was done."
"That's her version," Brandon said.
"I sat with her in the chapel for an hour.
I looked at what she gave me.
Brandon, I know her handwriting.
I know the dates.
I know what she was doing."
"Dad says—"
"Dad is trying to survive," I said.
"He is calling you because you are the one person in this family he thinks he can still use.
He needs you to doubt me.
He needs you to doubt Mom.
He needs us divided so that when this goes to court, we're not standing together."
Silence again.
Longer this time.
"He cried," Brandon said quietly.
"When I got there.
I've never seen him cry."
I closed my eyes.
"I know," I said.
"He's frightened.
That's real.
But Brandon — forty-one families.
Veterans.
People who were approved for housing and then told the money was gone.
Children who moved four times in two years because the program they were counting on never received the funds it was supposed to receive.
That's real too."
Nothing.
"Brandon."
"I don't know what to do," he said.
His voice had changed.
The tightness was gone.
What was underneath it was much younger.
"You don't have to decide anything tonight," I said.
"Don't make any statements.
Don't sign anything.
Don't talk to Fitch.
Get your own attorney if you need one.
Just — don't let him make your choice for you."
A long pause.
"Were you going to tell me?" he said.
"If today hadn't happened.
Were you ever going to tell me what Lucas had found?"
The question landed hard.
"I didn't know," I said honestly.
"Lucas was going to tell me tonight.
After the ceremony.
What I would have done after that — I don't know, Brandon.
I'd like to think I would have told you.
But I don't know."
He was quiet for a moment.
"Okay," he said finally.
It wasn't agreement.
It was just acknowledgment.
He was still there.
"Are you safe?" I asked.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine.
I'm just—" He stopped.
"I believed him.
For thirty years I just believed him."
"So did I," I said.
"So did a lot of people."
I heard him exhale.
"I'll call you tomorrow," he said.
"Okay."
"Victoria." A pause.
"I'm glad you didn't cancel the wedding.
I mean — I'm glad you were still going to marry him.
Before all this."
"I still am," I said.
"Eventually."
He made a sound that might have been a laugh.
Then he hung up.
I set the phone down on Lucas's kitchen table.
Lucas was in the doorway.
He had heard enough.
"He's going to be all right," I said.
More to myself than to him.
"I think so too," Lucas said.
I looked at the phone.
"Dad's not finished.
He'll try something else before the arraignment."
"Probably."
"We need to be ready."
"We will be." Lucas came and sat across from me.
"But tonight, Victoria — tonight we don't have to solve everything."
I looked at him.
He was still the same person he had been this morning when I walked down that aisle.
The same eyes.
The same steadiness.
The thing that had changed was only my understanding of how much that steadiness had cost him.
"You should have told me," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"I should have."
"Don't do that again.
Whatever it is.
Don't decide what I can handle."
"I won't," he said.
"I promise."
I believed him.
What I didn't know yet was that my father had not stopped at Brandon.
There was one more call he had made that evening.
May you like
One more person he had reached out to who had the power to change everything before the arraignment.
And that person had said yes.
