Chapter 4 - THE FATHER WHO CAME HOME TWICE
Charles’s timeline began weakening within a week.
His Manhattan gala started at six.
He appeared in photographs during the cocktail reception.
He gave brief remarks at 8:15.
But nobody could confirm where he was for nearly ninety minutes between those events.
That alone proved nothing.
Westport was too far from Midtown for the gap to seem useful.
Then Erin found a detail in the insurance file.
Charles had not traveled to Manhattan from Connecticut.
His driver dropped him at a private club in Greenwich at 5:05.
Charles dismissed the driver for the evening and said another car would take him into the city.
According to the club’s valet records, Charles’s personal SUV left the garage at 5:42.
It returned at 7:36.
The fire alarm activated at 7:08.
Maria read the times twice.
“He could’ve loaned the car to someone.”
“Yes.”
Erin did not let her get ahead of the evidence.
“So we find out.”
Charles eventually admitted he had left the club.
His explanation:
He returned home briefly because he forgot confidential papers needed for a Monday meeting.
“Which papers?” Erin asked during the next deposition.
“I don’t recall.”
“Where were they kept?”
“My office.”
“Beside the archive room?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you previously testify you never returned home?”
Charles paused.
“I misunderstood the question.”
Erin looked at him.
The transcript showed otherwise.
The inconsistency was serious.
Still not proof of what caused the fire.
Maria faced her own consequence.
Charles’s attorneys renewed their allegation that she had motive to lie because she faced financial ruin.
They produced records showing Maria borrowed money from her sister after losing her job.
It was humiliating.
True.
And irrelevant to whether she caused the fire.
But in court, true facts could be arranged into ugly stories.
After the deposition, Oliver approached Maria in the hallway before Charles could stop him.
“Are you mad at me?”
Maria crouched.
“For what?”
“For telling.”
Her throat tightened.
“No.”
Oliver glanced toward his father.
“He says families don’t tell private things to strangers.”
Maria looked at Charles.
Then back at Oliver.
“Courts aren’t asking you to protect adults.”
Oliver considered that.
Then whispered:
“Dad said the fire was my fault too.”
Maria froze.
“What?”
Oliver’s face changed.
He realized he had said something he was not supposed to.
Before Maria could ask more, Charles crossed the hallway.
“That’s enough.”
For the first time, Maria saw the shape of something larger than the fire.
May you like
Charles had not only blamed her.
He had also made his eight-year-old son believe he carried part of the guilt.
