Handle With Care (Shacking Up 5)

“Dani, dial it back a little,” Wren says, but there’s laughter in her voice.

“Right. Yeah. Sorry. It’s nice to meet you outside of social media posts. Come on in.” She leads the way into her small studio apartment. There’s a desk in the corner, foot-high stacks of paper surrounding a laptop, and three huge monitors. “Excuse the mess. I work from home, obviously.”

She offers us something to drink, and I accept a glass of water. My mouth is dry, and my palms are sweaty.

Wren puts a hand on my knee. “It’ll be okay.”

I nod, but my stomach is doing that churning thing again.

Dani drops down on the chair across from us. “Soooo…” She motions to the papers strewn across the coffee table. “After Wren told me about the blackmail threat, I looked into Fredrick’s properties, since that’s the impetus, right?”

“Right.” I squeeze Wren’s hand.

“Now, Fredrick had what appears to be quite a few investment properties, which isn’t uncommon for people with lots of money. Real estate is usually a good place to store your dollar bills. But, then I started researching the properties, and I noticed something interesting.” She taps a picture of the high-rise where my parents’ penthouse is. “His condo in the city is a Mills Property, which makes sense since you’re related to them, correct?”

“Yeah, by marriage. My aunt is married to Harrison Mills.”

“Right. So, of course, you’d buy from family, which I totally get. And over the years, most of your father’s condos have been associated with Mills real estate. But there are four properties over the past three decades that aren’t related to Mills buildings, which again, wouldn’t be a red flag, since some of them are houses and the Mills only do condos and hotels.” Dani’s knee bounces, and she gets this odd gleam in her eye. “But here’s where it gets interesting. Fredrick used a different account to purchase those four properties. And based on the statements I’ve been looking at, he strategically funneled money into that account through Moorehead Media. He was actually really sneaky about it. It’s pretty genius.”

I rub my temples, already feeling lost. I get buying the Manhattan condo on the sly, since that’s where he met with his mistress, but what would be the purpose of the other properties? Unless he had multiple mistresses or fetishes that required their own place. “Can you explain that further?”

“Yup. For sure. Let me start at the beginning.” Dani slaps her thighs and then rubs her hands together. “A little over three decades ago, your father bought a five-bedroom house in Jersey.”

“As an investment property?” I ask.

“That’s what I thought, until I checked into the deed. At first he was the sole owner, but a couple of years ago Jacqueline Mercier was added to it.”

“I don’t recognize that name.”

Dani nods. “I wouldn’t expect you to, but we’ll come back to that. Seven years after he bought the house in Jersey, he purchased the condo you discovered in Lower Manhattan. And about a decade ago, he purchased an apartment in Princeton, very close to the university.”

“Was this one an investment property?”

“At first I thought maybe he’d bought it for you or brother, but neither of you attended Princeton. Also, he sold it four years later, so roughly how long it would take to earn an undergrad. Then he bought another condo, this time in the city.”

“So, there are four properties my dad kept a secret?”

“It looks that way, unless maybe your mother knew and never said anything.”

“Well, she knew about the Manhattan penthouse, but I don’t know about the other properties,” I say.

Dani’s knee continues to bounce. It’s making me anxious. “I figured it might be a good idea to look into this Jacqueline Mercier woman, because she seems to hold the Jersey connection. And this is what I found.” Dani opens a folder and spreads a series of images out over the table.

“Holy shit.” It isn’t the woman in her late fifties who catches my attention. It’s the woman beside her who does. Because as much as she resembles her mother, she also bears a lot of similarities to me.

The woman in the photo has the same mouth, chin dimple, and a more feminine version of my nose, but the features are there. She’s a total hybrid between my father and this woman. “He had another family? Jesus. Do you think my mother knew about this? This has to be what she’s trying to hide.” I look to Wren, as if she’ll have the answers. “This is unreal, right? Like this whole thing is just … nuts.” I pick up the picture of the Jacqueline woman and the younger woman who looks to be close to my age. “This isn’t, like, some photoshopped trick?”

“No. I pulled it from her social media.”

I let it digest for a few seconds before I turn back to Wren. “I have a sister? And my father kept her a secret from us for her entire life? Why would he do that?”