Mom didn't want to stay near the front door.<\/p>\n
She asked everyone to come into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
I was relieved.<\/p>\n
Standing there with the watch between us had made the whole thing feel unreal.<\/p>\n
At least the kitchen was familiar.<\/p>\n
Dad had eaten breakfast there for as long as I could remember.<\/p>\n
He used to sit in the same chair every morning.<\/p>\n
Coffee on his right.<\/p>\n
Newspaper spread across the table.<\/p>\n
Reading glasses pushed low on his nose.<\/p>\n
After he died, Mom stopped sitting in that chair.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, she sat there without thinking.<\/p>\n
I noticed.<\/p>\n
I didn't say anything.<\/p>\n
Ed remained near the doorway.<\/p>\n
He seemed uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
I couldn't blame him.<\/p>\n
He had bought an ordinary-looking watch from my brother and ended up in the middle of a family secret.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole placed his briefcase on the table.<\/p>\n
He didn't open it immediately.<\/p>\n
First, he explained that Dad had contacted the law firm several months before his death.<\/p>\n
There had been specific instructions.<\/p>\n
The firm was supposed to investigate old documents connected to his employment.<\/p>\n
Certain information could be released only after the watch was recovered.<\/p>\n
Mom stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Why would Harold make everything depend on a watch?"<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole considered the question.<\/p>\n
"He seems to have believed it was the one object that would remain close to you."<\/p>\n
I looked down.<\/p>\n
That answer hurt.<\/p>\n
Dad had known how much Mom loved his watch.<\/p>\n
He had been right about her.<\/p>\n
He had been wrong about Scott.<\/p>\n
Or maybe he had simply believed that even Scott wouldn't go that far.<\/p>\n
I didn't know.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole finally opened the briefcase.<\/p>\n
He took out three folders.<\/p>\n
One held old employment records.<\/p>\n
Another contained correspondence.<\/p>\n
The third included an envelope with Mom's name written across it.<\/p>\n
She touched it carefully.<\/p>\n
"That's Harold's handwriting."<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole nodded.<\/p>\n
He explained that the envelope was meant to be handed directly to her after the watch came back.<\/p>\n
I watched her hold it.<\/p>\n
She didn't open it immediately.<\/p>\n
She looked as though she needed to hear everything else first.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole began with the employment records.<\/p>\n
Dad had joined North River Steel Works in 1974.<\/p>\n
I knew that year.<\/p>\n
I had heard Mom mention it many times.<\/p>\n
Dad had been young and glad to have steady work.<\/p>\n
The money wasn't generous, but it covered the necessities.<\/p>\n
Our first house was small.<\/p>\n
The winters were difficult.<\/p>\n
Dad accepted overtime whenever the mill offered it.<\/p>\n
He worked there for more than thirty years.<\/p>\n
There were two promotions along the way.<\/p>\n
Neither one made him rich.<\/p>\n
He still drove used cars.<\/p>\n
He still repaired things rather than replacing them.<\/p>\n
If a pair of work boots had another year left in them, Dad would make sure they lasted that year.<\/p>\n
That was just how he lived.<\/p>\n
I couldn't remember him buying something extravagant for himself.<\/p>\n
His watch was probably the clearest example.<\/p>\n
Fifty-one years.<\/p>\n
The same watch.<\/p>\n
I looked at Mr. Cole.<\/p>\n
"What did he find at the mill?"<\/p>\n
The lawyer turned through several pages.<\/p>\n
He started to mention a company name.<\/p>\n
Brennan Steel.<\/p>\n
I stopped him.<\/p>\n
"Did you say Brennan Steel?"<\/p>\n
He looked up.<\/p>\n
"Yes. I believe that's what appears in one of these records."<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
"Dad worked at North River."<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole checked the page.<\/p>\n
He explained that he had seen Brennan Steel mentioned in the material and assumed it was connected to a department or project.<\/p>\n
He had not yet confirmed what the name represented.<\/p>\n
That bothered me.<\/p>\n
Dad's surname was Brennan.<\/p>\n
Now it was appearing in a business record connected to the mill.<\/p>\n
I wanted a simple explanation.<\/p>\n
None came.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole continued.<\/p>\n
He said the documents pointed toward financial irregularities in September 1981.<\/p>\n
There had been questions involving equipment.<\/p>\n
Inventory.<\/p>\n
Purchase orders.<\/p>\n
Payments that did not appear to match the records they were supposed to support.<\/p>\n
I listened carefully.<\/p>\n
Dad had worked around heavy machinery all his life.<\/p>\n
I could understand missing tools or damaged equipment.<\/p>\n
But money transfers?<\/p>\n
That was another matter.<\/p>\n
Then the lawyer told us the amount involved.<\/p>\n
About one hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
In 1981.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I thought I had misunderstood.<\/p>\n
"Did you say one hundred and eighty-six thousand?"<\/p>\n
"Approximately."<\/p>\n
Mom sat very still.<\/p>\n
I tried to imagine that much money passing through the place where Dad spent his days.<\/p>\n
It seemed impossible.<\/p>\n
We had grown up watching expenses.<\/p>\n
Mom compared prices at the grocery store.<\/p>\n
Dad saved screws and nails.<\/p>\n
We drove to campsites instead of taking expensive vacations.<\/p>\n
And all that time, there had been a financial mystery involving a sum that could have changed our lives.<\/p>\n
I hated myself a little for thinking that.<\/p>\n
The first place my mind went was money.<\/p>\n
Dad would have been disappointed.<\/p>\n
He had always warned us against measuring people by what they owned.<\/p>\n
Still, I wondered.<\/p>\n
Had he known where the money went?<\/p>\n
Had someone offered him part of it?<\/p>\n
Had he refused?<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole said the available documents were incomplete.<\/p>\n
Dad's name appeared in an internal report.<\/p>\n
But there was no proof he had taken any money.<\/p>\n
The records suggested he may have been the one questioning the transactions.<\/p>\n
Mom sat up straighter.<\/p>\n
"Harold wasn't a thief."<\/p>\n
Her voice was quiet.<\/p>\n
But there was no uncertainty in it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole assured her he wasn't accusing Dad.<\/p>\n
Mom shook her head.<\/p>\n
"He worked himself to exhaustion. He wouldn't have taken something that wasn't his."<\/p>\n
I remembered the old tools Dad brought home.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they were bent or broken.<\/p>\n
He would spend an evening repairing them because he couldn't stand throwing useful things away.<\/p>\n
That was the man we knew.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole placed another page on the table.<\/p>\n
It was a copy of a handwritten letter.<\/p>\n
The handwriting wasn't Dad's.<\/p>\n
It was cramped and difficult to follow.<\/p>\n
At the bottom was a name.<\/p>\n
Daniel Whitaker.<\/p>\n
Mom drew in a breath.<\/p>\n
I turned toward her.<\/p>\n
"Do you know him?"<\/p>\n
She nodded slowly.<\/p>\n
"He worked with your father."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She said Daniel had visited our house when Scott and I were young.<\/p>\n
He and Dad had been friends for a time.<\/p>\n
Then one day, Daniel stopped coming.<\/p>\n
When Mom asked about him, Dad said he had left the mill.<\/p>\n
He offered no explanation.<\/p>\n
I could almost hear Dad saying it.<\/p>\n
He had never liked bringing workplace problems home.<\/p>\n
Mom used to ask about his day.<\/p>\n
He would tell her the shift had been long and ask what was for dinner.<\/p>\n
That was usually the end of it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole pointed toward the letter.<\/p>\n
It was dated September 17, 1981.<\/p>\n
The same date written on the watch note.<\/p>\n
He explained that Daniel had referred to an original ledger in Dad's possession.<\/p>\n
Daniel was worried that management would retaliate if the records were discovered.<\/p>\n
Not just against one of them.<\/p>\n
Against both.<\/p>\n
I looked at the note again.<\/p>\n
The mill.<\/p>\n
Locker 214.<\/p>\n
Daniel.<\/p>\n
The pieces were beginning to connect.<\/p>\n
Dad had been protecting financial records.<\/p>\n
Daniel had known about them.<\/p>\n
Someone at the company may have wanted those records kept hidden.<\/p>\n
I wanted to ask a hundred questions.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Cole kept reminding us that an old letter was not enough to establish exactly what happened.<\/p>\n
The company had changed hands twice.<\/p>\n
Some records were gone.<\/p>\n
Others remained in an archive controlled by a later owner of the property.<\/p>\n
The original locker rooms, however, might still exist.<\/p>\n
I leaned forward.<\/p>\n
"Then we should go there."<\/p>\n
Mom looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Jenny, we don't even know what we're looking for."<\/p>\n
"We have the locker number."<\/p>\n
"That doesn't mean it's still there."<\/p>\n
She was right.<\/p>\n
But I couldn't sit at that table and do nothing.<\/p>\n
Dad had left directions.<\/p>\n
Someone had preserved a note inside his watch.<\/p>\n
The least we could do was follow it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole said he would need permission to enter the property.<\/p>\n
He didn't want anyone walking into an old industrial building without authorization.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
I was impatient, not foolish.<\/p>\n
He promised to contact the company responsible for the site and determine whether access was possible.<\/p>\n
Mom looked down at Dad's letter.<\/p>\n
Then she touched the envelope with her name on it.<\/p>\n
For the first time since the lawyer arrived, I noticed how tired she looked.<\/p>\n
She had buried her husband only three months before.<\/p>\n
Now we were asking her to reconsider forty-five years of marriage.<\/p>\n
I reached across the table.<\/p>\n
"We don't have to understand everything at once."<\/p>\n
Mom nodded.<\/p>\n
But I could tell she didn't feel comforted.<\/p>\n
Neither did I.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cole spent more time explaining the limits of what he knew.<\/p>\n
He had photocopies.<\/p>\n
Fragments of old correspondence.<\/p>\n
References to financial records.<\/p>\n
But he had not located the original ledger.<\/p>\n
Without it, there was little he could confirm.<\/p>\n
That was when I understood why Dad had hidden the directions.<\/p>\n
He had wanted someone to look for the original evidence.<\/p>\n
Not a story.<\/p>\n
Not a rumor.<\/p>\n
Something that could be examined.<\/p>\n
It was exactly the kind of distinction Dad would have cared about.<\/p>\n
He didn't like arguments that depended on who shouted the loudest.<\/p>\n
Whenever Scott and I fought, Dad made us explain what had actually happened.<\/p>\n
One person at a time.<\/p>\n
No interruptions.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I hated that rule.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, I found myself wishing he were there to enforce it.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Mr. Cole closed the folders.<\/p>\n
He said he would call after making inquiries.<\/p>\n
Ed moved toward the doorway.<\/p>\n
Before leaving, he spoke to Mom.<\/p>\n
He explained that he hadn't understood the watch's significance when Scott sold it.<\/p>\n
It had looked like an ordinary old piece.<\/p>\n
But after discovering the message, he couldn't bring himself to put it back up for sale.<\/p>\n
He had cleaned the watch and returned it because he believed it belonged with the family.<\/p>\n
Mom stood.<\/p>\n
She thanked him.<\/p>\n
It was a simple exchange.<\/p>\n
No dramatic speech.<\/p>\n
Just a grieving woman and a stranger who had chosen to do the decent thing.<\/p>\n
Ed mentioned that he had already arranged the forty-dollar refund through the account he used for purchases.<\/p>\n
Whatever Scott had done with the money was between Scott and us.<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
Forty dollars had started all of this.<\/p>\n
Now it seemed like the most ridiculous amount I had ever heard.<\/p>\n
I walked Ed to the porch.<\/p>\n
He said he had thought about his own father when he found the note.<\/p>\n
There were things his father had never explained before dying.<\/p>\n
Ed knew what it felt like to be left with unanswered questions.<\/p>\n
That was why he couldn't ignore the paper.<\/p>\n
I shook his hand.<\/p>\n
"You brought something important back to Mom."<\/p>\n
He glanced toward the kitchen.<\/p>\n
"I hope it helps her."<\/p>\n
Then he left.<\/p>\n
I stood outside for another moment.<\/p>\n
The air was cold.<\/p>\n
I could see the kitchen light through the window.<\/p>\n
Mom was sitting at the table again.<\/p>\n
The watch rested beside Dad's reading glasses.<\/p>\n
Seeing those two things together made my throat tighten.<\/p>\n
I went back inside.<\/p>\n
Mom didn't speak for a while.<\/p>\n
Then she asked me a question.<\/p>\n
"Do you think your father was frightened all those years?"<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
She told me Dad used to wake during the night.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he said he'd dreamed about work.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he refused to explain.<\/p>\n
She had assumed it was exhaustion.<\/p>\n
The mill was loud.<\/p>\n
The hours were long.<\/p>\n
His shoulders and back often hurt.<\/p>\n
There had always been enough ordinary reasons for him to sleep badly.<\/p>\n
But now she remembered something else.<\/p>\n
Years earlier, she had asked Dad whether he regretted spending so much of his life at North River.<\/p>\n
He had told her that choosing what was right could leave a person paying for it long afterward.<\/p>\n
Mom had thought he meant the sacrifices he made for his family.<\/p>\n
Missed celebrations.<\/p>\n
Extra shifts.<\/p>\n
Hours he could never get back.<\/p>\n
Now she wasn't sure.<\/p>\n
I sat with her.<\/p>\n
We didn't try to solve anything else that afternoon.<\/p>\n
We talked about Dad instead.<\/p>\n
His terrible whistling.<\/p>\n
The breakfast he made on Sundays.<\/p>\n
The way he once drove three hours to rescue me after my car broke down during college.<\/p>\n
We talked about the money Scott had borrowed and never returned.<\/p>\n
Dad had rarely complained about it.<\/p>\n
He just helped.<\/p>\n
Maybe too much.<\/p>\n
Then Mom reminded me of something he always said.<\/p>\n
Money should never be allowed to choose your character for you.<\/p>\n
I had heard him say versions of that all my life.<\/p>\n
As a child, I thought it meant we shouldn't waste things.<\/p>\n
As an adult, I thought it meant we should be careful with our finances.<\/p>\n
That evening, I began to wonder whether Dad had learned the lesson somewhere much darker.<\/p>\n
And whether his old watch was the only reason we would ever find out.<\/p>\n
Source: psndaily.xyz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Mom didn't want to stay near the front door. She asked everyone to come into the kitchen. I was relieved. Standing there with the watch between us had made the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readmore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 3: When I Told Scott About the Name Hidden in Dad\u2019s Watch, His Sudden Silence Made Me Question What He Already Knew<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"