Chapter 44 - The Rehearsal Disaster
The wedding rehearsal should have been simple.
It was not.
Nothing involving the Ellison family had ever been simple.
The ceremony was scheduled in Foundation House’s courtyard.
Arthur had built the wooden arch.
Elaine had chosen white roses.
Owen had somehow become responsible for chairs despite being the least qualified person to organize anything in straight lines.
Toby was ring bearer.
Sophie was flower girl and had already emptied two baskets of petals onto Daniel Mercer’s truck.
Graham stood beneath the arch while Mara practiced walking down the aisle.
He smiled.
Owen nudged him.
“You look terrified.”
“I faced armed criminals with less anxiety.”
“That is the correct response to marriage.”
Claire slapped Owen’s arm.
Then a county vehicle pulled up.
Everyone groaned.
Melissa Crane stepped out.
Her arm remained in a sling.
Sloan followed.
Graham approached.
“Please tell me nobody is being arrested during rehearsal.”
Sloan hesitated.
“That depends.”
Mara joined him.
“Rebecca.”
“Malcolm Voss accepted a plea agreement.”
Graham’s smile vanished.
“For what?”
“Federal racketeering, labor trafficking, conspiracy, obstruction.”
“How many years?”
“Likely twenty-five.”
Arthur nodded.
“Good.”
Sloan did not look satisfied.
“What?”
“He gave us names.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“Whose?”
“Judges. County employees. Contractors. Former officials.”
“That's good.”
“Yes.”
Sloan paused.
“Except one name involves this family.”
Everyone went silent.
“Who?” Graham asked.
Sloan looked toward Elaine.
Elaine’s face changed before Sloan spoke.
“Elaine Ellison.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
Graham stared at the woman he had called mother.
Sloan continued.
“Voss claims Elaine received $15,000 from Thomas Sterling in 1995.”
Arthur stepped forward.
“That is impossible.”
Elaine sat down.
Everybody looked at her.
Arthur noticed.
“Elaine?”
She began crying.
Mara whispered, “Mom?”
Elaine covered her face.
“I took money.”
The courtyard went silent.
Graham felt something inside him fracture.
Arthur stared at his wife.
“You knew Thomas Sterling?”
“No.”
“You took fifteen thousand dollars?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Eight months after Graham disappeared.”
Arthur stumbled backward.
“Why?”
Elaine looked at Graham.
“To find you.”
Nobody moved.
She explained.
A private investigator contacted her after Graham vanished.
He claimed he could locate runaway teenagers.
Elaine had no money.
Thomas Sterling offered financing through a charitable family-reunification fund.
She took it.
“I thought I was borrowing money.”
Sloan asked, “Did the investigator find Graham?”
Elaine shook her head.
“He kept telling me he was close.”
“How long?”
“Almost two years.”
Arthur whispered, “You never told me.”
“You were drowning in guilt.”
“So you lied?”
“Yes.”
The pain in Arthur’s eyes echoed 1994.
Another secret.
Another protection built from silence.
Graham asked the question nobody wanted.
“Who was the investigator?”
Elaine opened an old envelope she had brought from home after Sloan’s call.
The name on the receipt:
MALCOLM VOSS INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES.
Mara swore.
Elaine looked at Graham.
“He took my money while knowing exactly where the system had sent your records.”
Graham’s anger rose.
But not at Elaine.
Never at Elaine.
She had spent two years paying the man who helped erase him.
Elaine looked broken.
“You must hate me.”
Graham crossed the courtyard.
He knelt in front of her.
“No.”
“I lied too.”
“Yes.”
She flinched.
Graham took her hands.
“This family has got to stop believing love makes lying safer.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Elaine sobbed.
Graham hugged her.
Behind them, Sophie whispered loudly to Toby,
“Is the wedding canceled?”
Mara wiped her tears.
“No.”
Graham looked over Elaine’s shoulder.
May you like
“Definitely not.”
Because this time the truth had arrived before the vows.
