“True. And I have a lot of questions.”
“Did you get any answers?”
“Some.”
“I wouldn’t put faith in anything she says.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why did you see her?”
Why indeed? My mother’s relationship with the truth was contorted, at best. Mine, however, was not. And it came to me like a bolt of lightning right into my brain. Why I decided to share it with Larry, I didn’t know, but I opened my mouth to speak.
“Because I wanted to. Because I wanted to see her.”
“Well, my children don’t want to see me.”
“You have young grandchildren, right?” Jade had told me that.
“I do. And I never hurt them. I never hurt my children either.”
“But you can’t say the same for Mathias, can you
? He didn’t stop at hurting children he was related to.”
Larry flattened his lips into a thin line. The bastard still wouldn’t talk. Still wouldn’t give up Mathias. What the hell did Mathias have on him?
Time to try a different tactic.
“What do you know about my father’s will?”
“A whole lot of nothing.”
Larry never made anything easy. “Simpson and Mathias seem to think my father owed them something. That there was something in his will to that effect. Do you agree with that?”
“Nobody owes me anything.”
“That wasn’t my question. Why would Simpson and Mathias think my father owed them something?”
No answer.
“All right. Why would Simpson think my father owed him anything?”
Still no response.
“Tom Simpson is dead, Larry. You have nothing to fear from him.”
Once again, his lips remained sealed.
I stood. “I guess we’re done here. My offer stands. Whatever you want, Larry. My entire fortune for some answers.” I motioned to the guard but then shook my head and sat back down. I’d almost forgotten the most important thing—why I’d come in the first place.
“Tell me about the ring the future lawmakers used to wear.”
Larry looked over my head for a moment. “I haven’t thought about that in years.”
“You had one, didn’t you?”
“We all did. Your father paid for them, by the way.”