The question was how much had Nick lied to me.
“So you’re saying that you never really believed that Daniel disappeared because of me, because of what we did?”
Nick was silent, as if he was thinking of taking it all back. But then he saw the look in my face, the sheer fury I was feeling.
“I was trying to protect Daniel, and myself. You don’t understand what these last few weeks have been like. Can you imagine what it’s like to believe your own father may have killed your brother? Daniel never fully understood what our father was capable of. He’d never seen the worst of what happened to our mom because I tried to protect him. Mostly he just saw our Dad the morning afterwards, when he was trying to be especially charming to make up for what he did. And Dad was always so careful to hit Mom where it wouldn’t show, so we could all pretend this was fine.Or maybe Daniel did know, but he fully couldn’t accept it.”
“But I don’t understand, what would make your father want to kill Daniel? I mean, I know the guy too. I saw him threaten your mom, but I also saw him be so loving with her. With you guys too. What could drive him to that?”
Nick shook his head. “So you bought into the lie too. My Dad has got to be the best actor in the world. He can make such a song and dance about how much he loves our mom, how proud he is of us. But that can change on a dime as soon as he even thinks you’ve crossed him. Then it feels like he might just kill us all to teach us a lesson. He can’t stand betrayal. And that’s where Daniel was really stupid.
”Stupid in what way?”
Nick breathed out heavily. “You cannot say anything about this.”
I nodded, “But you have to stop lying to me, or how else can I help Daniel?”
Nick’s voice got lower, like he was worried someone would overhear even though we were alone. “Our mom had told us years ago, about this stash of money that supposedly had gotten burned up in the fire. Sometimes she made it sound like it was secret bank account information, passwords and stuff. And sometimes she’d say it was actual cash our grandfather had been trying to hide during the bankruptcy. Anyways, she’d make us go over to the estate and look for it. It was kind of a joke, sort of a random adventure, digging up holes around the mansion ruins. We never found anything, but at some point we found out our dad was looking for the same money, like he actually had financial investigators trying to dig up info on Swiss bank accounts. And then whenever he came to Somersby, he’d always snoop around the mansion. Then two years ago he started acting really weird, even weird for him. He’d disappear for weeks, making it sound like business. But at some point Daniel found out he’d left his job at bank. He’d gotten laid off and he hadn’t told anyone. But it seemed like he was spending more money than ever. Mostly on himself, but sometimes mom. But even though he’d spend, he made it sound like we would barely be able to afford college. And then this year, he’d be really gone, like for a month or more. Our mom would be worried and then almost hoping he’d never come back. But then he would and he’d say horrible things to our mom, like she’d ruined his life and he’d make her pay.. She called up Daniel after a really bad night. Daniel drove home and she told him that he’d found some of the money, that was screaming at her that she knew where the rest of it was. Then he went through our dad’s old phone and found all these receipts, like he really had spent money like crazy, over a million in six months on fancy hotels and dinners and clothes. But we didn’t know where he was getting it. So Daniel confronted him and it was as bad as you can think. Daniel gotten beaten up, was in the hospital with a concussion. I honestly think the concussions did something to Daniel because after that it was all he wanted to talk about.” Nick trailed off.
I waited. “Talk about what?”
“About killing our father.”
“But that’s like a crazy thing to even think about. Killing another human, even a really bad one. Nick grimaced. “Daniel kept saying that Dad was going to kill him, and me too. Because we knew about the money. That he was worried we’d turn him in, that he was planning to leave our mom, or maybe kill her too. Daniel was so paranoid, he thought our Dad was completely unleashed. And I didn’t know what to do about it.”
— siobhan
“So you’re saying that you never really believed that Daniel disappeared because of me, because of what we did?”
Nick was silent, as if he was thinking of taking it all back. But then he saw the look in my face, the sheer fury I was feeling.
“I was trying to protect Daniel, and myself. You don’t understand what these last few weeks have been like. Can you imagine what it’s like to believe your own father may have killed your brother? Daniel never fully understood what our father was capable of. He’d never seen the worst of what happened to our mom because I tried to protect him. Mostly he just saw our Dad the morning afterwards, when he was trying to be especially charming to make up for what he did. And Dad was always so careful to hit Mom where it wouldn’t show, so we could all pretend this was fine.Or maybe Daniel did know, but he fully couldn’t accept it.”
“But I don’t understand, what would make your father want to kill Daniel? I mean, I know the guy too. I saw him threaten your mom, but I also saw him be so loving with her. With you guys too. What could drive him to that?”
Nick shook his head. “So you bought into the lie too. My Dad has got to be the best actor in the world. He can make such a song and dance about how much he loves our mom, how proud he is of us. But that can change on a dime as soon as he even thinks you’ve crossed him. Then it feels like he might just kill us all to teach us a lesson. He can’t stand betrayal. And that’s where Daniel was really stupid.
”Stupid in what way?”
Nick breathed out heavily. “You cannot say anything about this.”
I nodded, “But you have to stop lying to me, or how else can I help Daniel?”
Nick’s voice got lower, like he was worried someone would overhear even though we were alone. “Our mom had told us years ago, about this stash of money that supposedly had gotten burned up in the fire. Sometimes she made it sound like it was secret bank account information, passwords and stuff. And sometimes she’d say it was actual cash our grandfather had been trying to hide during the bankruptcy. Anyways, she’d make us go over to the estate and look for it. It was kind of a joke, sort of a random adventure, digging up holes around the mansion ruins. We never found anything, but at some point we found out our dad was looking for the same money, like he actually had financial investigators trying to dig up info on Swiss bank accounts. And then whenever he came to Somersby, he’d always snoop around the mansion. Then two years ago he started acting really weird, even weird for him. He’d disappear for weeks, making it sound like business. But at some point Daniel found out he’d left his job at bank. He’d gotten laid off and he hadn’t told anyone. But it seemed like he was spending more money than ever. Mostly on himself, but sometimes mom. But even though he’d spend, he made it sound like we would barely be able to afford college. And then this year, he’d be really gone, like for a month or more. Our mom would be worried and then almost hoping he’d never come back. But then he would and he’d say horrible things to our mom, like she’d ruined his life and he’d make her pay.. She called up Daniel after a really bad night. Daniel drove home and she told him that he’d found some of the money, that was screaming at her that she knew where the rest of it was. Then he went through our dad’s old phone and found all these receipts, like he really had spent money like crazy, over a million in six months on fancy hotels and dinners and clothes. But we didn’t know where he was getting it. So Daniel confronted him and it was as bad as you can think. Daniel gotten beaten up, was in the hospital with a concussion. I honestly think the concussions did something to Daniel because after that it was all he wanted to talk about.” Nick trailed off.
I waited. “Talk about what?”
“About killing our father.”
“But that’s like a crazy thing to even think about. Killing another human, even a really bad one. Nick grimaced. “Daniel kept saying that Dad was going to kill him, and me too. Because we knew about the money. That he was worried we’d turn him in, that he was planning to leave our mom, or maybe kill her too. Daniel was so paranoid, he thought our Dad was completely unleashed. And I didn’t know what to do about it.”
— siobhan
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