Chapter 6 - THE FATHER THEY TAUGHT JASON TO HATE
Thomas Bennett lived under the name Thomas Reed in a rehabilitation residence near Knoxville.
He had survived the highway crash.
The collision left him with spinal injuries and months of memory loss.
Patricia told Jason his father was dead.
She told Thomas that Jason wanted no contact with an addict who had destroyed the family.
Neither statement was true.
My father found Thomas six years later through an insurance investigator.
By then, Jason was an adult and completely loyal to Patricia’s version of the past.
Thomas feared approaching him would cause more harm.
Andrew Collins helped him preserve evidence and arranged independent medical care.
When my father died, communication ended.
Thomas learned about my hemorrhage from the news.
He contacted Naomi after recognizing Grant’s name.
I did not travel to Tennessee.
Doctors had not cleared me to leave the hospital.
Thomas spoke through a secure video connection.
He appeared older than his fifty nine years. Gray hair covered his temples. A wheelchair supported his body. A long scar crossed one side of his face.
The moment he saw Noah, his expression broke.
“That is Jason’s son?”
“Yes.”
“He looks like Jason did at birth.”
I felt no comfort from the comparison.
Thomas understood.
“I know what my son did.”
“Did you know Grant recruited him?”
“Andrew suspected it.”
“Why did nobody warn me?”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“Your father believed direct interference would push you closer to Jason.”
“He trusted a plan more than he trusted me.”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt because it was true.
My father protected ownership structures.
He preserved evidence.
He also withheld danger from the daughter expected to live inside it.
Silence had become a family habit disguised as care.
Thomas worked in Collins Biomedical’s accounting department during the company’s early years.
Grant Holloway created false vendor accounts and moved research money through private consulting firms.
Some funds came from safety testing budgets for newborn monitoring equipment.
Thomas discovered the payments and reported them to Patricia, who then worked as Grant’s executive assistant.
Patricia pretended to help.
Instead, she gave Grant every document Thomas had collected.
Grant arranged the crash.
Investigators could not yet prove who caused it, but company records showed a payment to a private security contractor two days before the collision.
Patricia filed for divorce while Thomas remained unidentified in a hospital.
She used his previous prescription medication history to describe him as addicted and unstable.
Jason was taught that his father chose drugs over family.
“Why did Patricia help Grant?” I asked.
“Money first. Then fear.”
Grant paid her debts and funded Jason’s education.
When Thomas survived, Grant threatened to implicate Patricia in the accounting fraud.
She continued obeying.
Years later, she no longer needed threats.
She enjoyed control.
Thomas opened a small recorder.
“Jason contacted me once.”
“When?”
“Eight months before he met you.”
Jason had found Thomas through a private investigator.
He did not approach him as a son.
He approached him for information about Collins Biomedical.
Grant had already made the first offer.
Thomas recorded the conversation because Andrew warned him never to meet Jason without evidence.
Jason’s younger voice filled the hospital room.
“Grant says Emma Collins controls everything her father built.”
Thomas answered.
“She controls it because Andrew trusts her.”
“Grant says the board needs someone practical beside her.”
“He wants access.”
“He offered to save my company.”
“What does he want from you?”
“A relationship.”
“With Emma?”
“Yes.”
Thomas told him to refuse.
Jason laughed.
“You disappeared. You do not get to give fatherly advice now.”
“I did not disappear willingly.”
“That is what addicts say.”
The recording continued.
Thomas tried to explain the crash and Patricia’s lies.
Jason refused to listen.
Then he asked a question that made my entire body cold.
“What happens to the trust if childbirth kills her first?”
Thomas’s voice became sharp.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Grant says pregnancy creates complications.”
“Stay away from her.”
“I am only asking.”
“No. You are measuring a woman’s death before meeting her.”
The recording ended.
Jason had considered the possibility before he knew my favorite food, before our first date, before he watched me walk toward him at our wedding.
He later claimed the question was hypothetical.
The timing made that defense meaningless.
Thomas provided another recording from three months earlier.
Jason sounded different.
Afraid.
“I want out.”
Grant answered through the speaker.
“You married her. You are already inside.”
“I will not hurt Emma.”
“You do not need to. Childbirth will create the opening.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“Then you become a grieving widower with a company to protect.”
Jason whispered:
“No.”
Grant’s voice remained calm.
“You came to me because you wanted a future. Do not develop morality after receiving the benefits.”
Jason knew death was possible.
He continued.
Thomas looked at me through the screen.
“I am sorry.”
“You did not leave me on the floor.”
“No. I failed to stop my son before he entered your life.”
“You tried to warn him.”
“I did not warn you.”
Neither of us asked for forgiveness.
The investigation finally reached Grant’s private records.
Inside a locked archive, agents found contracts involving Jason, Patricia, and Denise.
Another file carried Noah’s name before he was born.
May you like
Grant had planned around my child months before the delivery.
Continue to the next part: Grant’s records reveal that Noah’s birth activated more than a financial audit. It also unlocked evidence connecting Collins Biomedical executives to concealed safety failures in neonatal devices.
