Page 105 of What the Wife Knew

“The investigator didn’t find anything to connect your mom with Zach. Zach had a girlfriend. People who knew him back then talked about her.”

“It was a long time ago. Memories fade.” That sounded somewhat logical. I hoped.

“For all of this to explode decades later, to go after Richmond, specifically, suggests a very personal and very targeted revenge. Your DNA worries made me wonder about how deep your connection to the Dougherty family went. That led me to ask the investigator to check into your mom’s relationships back then.She told at least one friend about sleeping with a boy from a wealthy family at the country club where she worked. Zach’s family weren’t members.” Elias stopped to take a sip of coffee. “Richmond had Kathryn. Cooper was the quiet one. Easier to manipulate. He was your mom’s way out of the life she didn’t want.”

I never made the connection before my mom spewed the family secret in the middle of my favorite diner. Never dreamed she could set me up for that sort of violation. What rational person would?

“I’m your lawyer but I’d also like to think we’re friends. Reluctant at first and completely mismatched but still friends. You can tell me the truth. It stays between us.”

Cooper Dougherty was my dad. The right words rolled around in my head and still didn’t fit.

Friends were a luxury I avoided. Moving around, sidestepping emotions, keeping my past locked up, and not trusting anyone made genuine relationships impossible. I’d convinced myself I didn’t want or need people. Complete bullshit. Making connections keeps you human. I’d been a hollowed-out husk for too long.

But if Elias and I were friends I needed to protect him while I protected myself. “If I married my uncle the marriage would be void. That means the money, the house, everything, would be up for grabs. The kids should get it all, but Portia is a minor and Kathryn is determined. And she’s about to need a lot of money for expensive attorneys who aren’t you.”

“Well done.” He actually looked proud. “Did you go to law school and not tell me?”

“It took a two-second internet search to figure out who wasn’t allowed to get married in this state. Uncle-niece is specificallymentioned as forbidden, as it should be.” The idea couldn’t pass anyicktest. “I also have common sense.”

Mom’s paternity bombshell after—conveniently for her not before—I got married caused me to look up a lot of things, includinghow to break from your toxic mother forever. That remained a work in progress.

“When we first started this journey you talked about how you couldn’t know the location of my bat because you might have a legal or ethical obligation to disclose it... or something like that.”

“Close enough,” Elias said. “That was also a hypothetical conversation.”

We seemed to excel at those. “Consider the question of my paternity equal to the question about the location of my bat.”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds then nodded. “You’re right. The marriage would be null and void.”

“Hypothetically speaking, I didn’t know when I married Richmond. I thought Zach was my dad, and that’s why she wanted revenge. Mom sprang the family tree horror on me after. When it was too late.”

It was important that Elias know this was allheridea and I got trapped in her mess. Mom lied for decades to stoke my bloodlust, spinning me round and round in the fatherhood sweepstakes before she landed on the answer that branded me a murderer’s daughter.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get violent when she told you the truth,” Elias said.

“I came close.” Picking the diner to deliver the news boxed me in. She didn’t allow room for an outburst or throwing things or yelling. She maneuvered me into a benign outward reaction.

The private one included throwing up in the diner bathroom and crying in the stall until my mother came to fetch me. Later, we sat in my car while she pummeled me with excuses about how what she did wasn’t a big deal.

The idea of marrying my uncle was so repulsive, so unthinkable and out of bounds, that I would have risked her divulging my part in her husband’s death all those years ago to the police if she’d told me the truth before the wedding.

The initial horror gave way to a heavy numbness. She broke me that day. Finally and fully. She’d never been the usual mom but that day she became a monster. And I was the child of monsters.

“In this scenario, your mom was dating Cooper and that’s how she got the evidence, including the map and the recording about the murders. Through him. When and how are questions, as is how deeply she was involved in the plot to kill the Doughertys. We’re not going to examine those questions because doing so could raise the issue of her culpability, shine a spotlight on you, and potentially put your inheritance at risk.”

I didn’t need a fancy degree or weeks of research to come up with an answer. I blamed her. I always would.

“And if Kathryn and your mom knew each other back then it would explain why Kathryn came to this house to kill your mom.”

Would it, though? That part remained murky. “So, how can we keep the police from testing for my DNA and unraveling all of this?”

“Nick.”

“He’s never the right answer.”

“The DNA on the bat was corrupted, as you know. So, you’reclear there. My understanding is there’s no other usable DNA on the items collected.”

Luck rarely worked in my favor. Being saved by it now felt like a stretch. “How is that possible?”

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