“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why only eighteen thousand?”
“Because that’s all she could hide.”
I stared at him.
“And the rest?”
Russell looked toward the floor.
“There’s more.”
My heart sank.
“How much?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Where is it?”
He hesitated.
Then he said something I never expected.
“Daniel Mercer didn’t keep the money.”
I looked at him.
“Then who did?”
Russell’s face changed.
“Wayne.”
“He’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Then where is it?”
Russell reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small brass key.
He held it in his palm.
“Mama gave me this six months before she died.”
I stared at it.
“What does it open?”
He looked at me.
“Wayne’s storage unit.”
My heart began pounding again.
“You knew about this the entire time?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You’ve been protecting yourself.”
He looked away.
Maybe he knew I was right.
I took the key from his hand.
“Where?”
“Memphis.”
I stared at him.
“You said you needed to get back to Memphis.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because the storage unit is being auctioned tomorrow.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“Tomorrow?”
He nodded.
“Mama’s last payment expired three weeks ago.”
I looked at the flour tin.
At the photograph.
At the eighteen thousand nine hundred forty dollars.
Then I looked at my brother.
“How long have you known?”
“Since the day Mom died.”
“You had two days to tell me.”
“I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
I laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy sound.
“You didn’t know if you could trust me?”
“I was ashamed.”
“So you were going to let everything disappear?”
“No.”
“Then what were you going to do?”
He looked at the key.
“I was going to get there first.”
I understood.
“You were going to take whatever was inside.”
He didn’t deny it.
I stepped closer.
“You’re still stealing from me.”
“I wasn’t going to keep it.”
“Then what?”
He looked at me.
“I was going to destroy it.”
That frightened me more than anything.
“What is inside that storage unit?”
Russell’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Proof that Wayne didn’t just steal your money.”
He paused.
“He hurt other people, too.”
I thought of the photograph.
The forged signature.
The money transfers.
My seventeen-year-old self sitting in that wheelchair.
And suddenly Mama’s final words made sense.
She hadn’t hidden the money because she wanted me to become rich.
She had hidden it because she wanted me to become free.
I picked up the flour tin.
The $18,940 suddenly felt heavier than it had before.
It wasn’t money anymore.
It was evidence.
It was an apology.
It was sixty years of silence.
And somewhere in Memphis, inside a storage unit scheduled to be opened by strangers tomorrow morning, was the truth my family had buried for most of my life.
I looked at Russell.
“We’re going to Memphis.”
He nodded.
“But we’re not going alone.”
I took out my phone.
“For the first time in sixty years,” I said, “I’m going to let somebody else know what happened.”
Russell looked frightened.
“Who?”
I called the number printed on the attorney’s old letter.
The law office answered after three rings.
“Mercer & Hall.”
I swallowed.
“My name is Linda Harper.”
There was a pause.
“I think your office represented me when I was seventeen.”
Another pause.
Then the woman on the other end said:
“Linda?”
“Yes.”
“Where have you been?”
I looked at Russell.
Then at the flour tin.
Then at the photograph of the girl I used to be.
“Looking for the truth.”
The woman breathed in sharply.
“Then you need to come here immediately.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother came to our office last month.”
My heart stopped.
“Last month?”
