For several seconds, nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Luca had stopped fussing in my arms. His cheek rested against my chest, his mouth slightly open, unaware that four adults were holding their breath around a secret buried before he was born.<\/p>\n
I stared at my mother.<\/p>\n
She had gone pale again.<\/p>\n
On the phone, Claire said, \u201cWhat secret?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel answered slowly. \u201cNot over the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat answer isn't good enough anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Dad, I don't think you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no anger in her voice now. That frightened me more than shouting would have. Claire sounded emptied out, as though every new revelation had scraped away another layer of trust.<\/p>\n
Daniel spoke carefully. \u201cI need to show you something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother letter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother altered document?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA file Michael gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat file?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel heard her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnne?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother flinched at hearing her name.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have it?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI've had it since 2004.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me Michael destroyed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. He told you that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked between my mother and the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan someone explain what we're talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel exhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt concerns Michael's business.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the first answer I hadn't expected.<\/p>\n
My father had owned a small construction company for most of my childhood. Carter Residential. He built additions, renovated kitchens and repaired storm damage. Nothing about it had ever seemed mysterious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the business?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel said, \u201cMichael wasn't only renovating houses.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother sat again.<\/p>\n
I could see recognition in her face.<\/p>\n
Not surprise.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew there were problems near the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of problems?\u201d<\/p>\n
She rubbed her palms together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney.\u201d<\/p>\n
That seemed almost ordinary.<\/p>\n
Until Daniel said, \u201cNot his money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire spoke quietly. \u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClients'. Insurance settlements. Escrow funds. Deposits.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shifted Luca higher on my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're saying Dad stole money?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel did not soften it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
My first instinct was rejection.<\/p>\n
My father had spent his life warning me not to take shortcuts. He returned extra change when cashiers made mistakes. Once, when I was nine, I found a twenty-dollar bill in a parking lot and he made me take it to customer service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn't make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn't start that way,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did it start?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCarter Residential got in trouble during a bad year. Three large customers delayed payments. Michael had payroll due and material suppliers threatening liens.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother nodded faintly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stopped sleeping around then.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered that year only in fragments. Dad leaving before sunrise. Whispered arguments in the garage. My mother checking bank statements after midnight.<\/p>\n
Daniel continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael began moving money between projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
I understood enough to feel sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing one customer's deposit to finish another job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow bad did it get?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery.\u201d<\/p>\n
I walked toward the bassinet and lowered Luca carefully.<\/p>\n
He stirred, but did not wake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that have to do with Claire?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca found out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the phone.<\/p>\n
Claire made no sound.<\/p>\n
Daniel said, \u201cShe worked for Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTemporarily. Bookkeeping.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had never known that.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe discovered inconsistencies in the accounts,\u201d Daniel continued. \u201cAt first she thought it was poor recordkeeping. Then she realized Michael was deliberately moving money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire asked, \u201cAnd she confronted him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot long after you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n
A piece of the timeline shifted into place.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the affair and the business problem overlapped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel answered reluctantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother looked away.<\/p>\n
I wondered how many humiliations she had swallowed during those years without ever telling me.<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cWhat did my mother do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe threatened to report him.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father, dead for twelve years, changed shape inside my memory.<\/p>\n
Not completely.<\/p>\n
That would have been easier.<\/p>\n
He remained the man who taught me to ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n
The man who sat beside my bed when I had pneumonia.<\/p>\n
The man who also apparently altered a birth certificate, cheated on my mother and stole from customers.<\/p>\n
People did not become simple merely because they died.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stopped her?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Daniel was quiet.<\/p>\n
Then he said, \u201cMe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire inhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked her not to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I was terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's voice roughened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had invested money with Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother turned sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never told me that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents' money. Mine. Rebecca's.\u201d<\/p>\n
I began to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Dad's company collapsed\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have lost the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if the police investigated the books, Rebecca could have been implicated because she'd handled some of the accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cSo you protected him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her next words were painfully calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd let him keep stealing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer hung there.<\/p>\n
Daniel did not excuse himself.<\/p>\n
That made it harder to hate him and easier to understand how people became trapped.<\/p>\n
One compromise created another.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Eventually the original boundary disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat changed?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael got worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn what way?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stopped moving money only to cover jobs. He began taking some personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother whispered, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel replied, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're sure?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the records.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me the business debt came from failed projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lied.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked as though someone had struck her.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether there was any age at which learning the truth about your marriage became painless.<\/p>\n
Claire asked, \u201cWhere does the warning fit into this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is complicated. Say it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca kept copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the financial records?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInsurance.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed at the bitter appropriateness.<\/p>\n
Against my father.<\/p>\n
Against Daniel.<\/p>\n
Maybe against everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are those copies?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel answered, \u201cThat's the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother stared at the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Michael got sick, he started tearing apart the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered.<\/p>\n
Boxes everywhere.<\/p>\n
Papers burned in the backyard fire pit.<\/p>\n
He had told me he was cleaning out old company records before we sold the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was he looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel confirmed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never found them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cDid my mother still have them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she'd hidden them somewhere Michael would never find.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire's breathing changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca died when Claire was eight.<\/p>\n
A car accident.<\/p>\n
At least that was the story I knew.<\/p>\n
I felt another cold sensation move through me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did Rebecca die?\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire said immediately, \u201cEvan.\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard the warning in her voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cA drunk driver crossed the center line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there an investigation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas the driver charged?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That should have ended the suspicion.<\/p>\n
It didn't.<\/p>\n
Because secrets had now contaminated everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Dad have anything to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's answer was immediate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're certain?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Michael was with me when the accident happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
That startled everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were at an attorney's office.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother whispered, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca had decided to disclose everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire made a quiet sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
One accident.<\/p>\n
One meeting missed.<\/p>\n
One truth buried for decades.<\/p>\n
Daniel continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Rebecca died, I lost the nerve to go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire asked, \u201cAnd Michael?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted the records found and destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you helped him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I believed Rebecca had destroyed them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she hadn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy lie?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I hated him.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time since he began speaking, emotion tore through the careful control.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated him for what he'd done to my marriage, what he'd done to Anne, the way he treated Rebecca when she tried to stop him. And I hated myself almost as much for helping him hide it.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother said nothing.<\/p>\n
Daniel continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I let him live with the fear that somewhere, in some box or bank vault or attic, proof still existed.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the old photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen years later Dad wrote letters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cancer had taken my father slowly.<\/p>\n
First his appetite.<\/p>\n
Then his strength.<\/p>\n
Then his voice.<\/p>\n
I had been nineteen.<\/p>\n
There were whole conversations we never had because I believed there would always be one more day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo confess.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Daniel said, \u201cNot publicly. Not at first. He wanted to tell the families.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich families?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer frightened me.<\/p>\n
Claire asked, \u201cWhy was I part of it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Michael believed Rebecca might have left the records to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire went silent.<\/p>\n
Then: \u201cI was eight when she died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never told me anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why would Michael think I had them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of something Rebecca said.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's voice lowered.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told him, \u2018If anything happens to me, the truth survives with Claire.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence chilled the room.<\/p>\n
It sounded like the kind of statement frightened adults turned into myths after someone died.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cMaybe she meant I'd eventually learn what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr she gave me something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire stopped talking.<\/p>\n
I could imagine her scanning every childhood memory.<\/p>\n
Boxes.<\/p>\n
Birthday gifts.<\/p>\n
Old photographs.<\/p>\n
Anything her biological mother had touched.<\/p>\n
My mother asked, \u201cDid Michael believe the financial records could implicate Evan?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would they implicate me? I was a child.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did not answer.<\/p>\n
Daniel did.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot legally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was afraid Evan would inherit the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn't make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will when you see the file.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, the file.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is in it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNames. Accounts. Payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad's?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only his.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bad feeling began forming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel exhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael wasn't doing it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother stood slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel did not answer immediately.<\/p>\n
Then he said a name.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas Vale.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had not heard it in years.<\/p>\n
But I knew it.<\/p>\n
Everyone in our town did.<\/p>\n
Thomas Vale had been one of the largest developers in the county before entering politics.<\/p>\n
First city council.<\/p>\n
Then state senate.<\/p>\n
Later Congress.<\/p>\n
By the time my father died, Vale had become the kind of person photographed at fundraisers beside governors and CEOs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe worked with Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQuietly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving money through construction contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of money?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel replied, \u201cThat is what Michael was afraid to explain in a letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause some of the people connected to those accounts were still powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael told me Thomas helped him get contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's all he told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn't all Thomas did.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the story widening beyond anything I had imagined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does any of this have to do with Claire and me meeting?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael believed Rebecca had hidden evidence. He believed Claire might someday find it. He also knew you would inherit what remained of Carter Residential.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the company closed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficially.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother looked sharply at me.<\/p>\n
I remembered a packet of papers an attorney had given me after Dad's death.<\/p>\n
A dormant LLC.<\/p>\n
Some property interest I had signed away because I didn't understand it and wanted nothing to do with construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
She had started crying again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat warehouse?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father's company owned part of one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEast Mercer Road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The location hit me instantly.<\/p>\n
Claire's parents had lived near East Mercer Road when she was a child.<\/p>\n
Daniel spoke through the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's where Rebecca hid the records.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Claire finally asked, \u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I found a key after she died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you didn't look?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse jumped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how do you know she hid anything there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the safe had been opened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed so.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael didn't find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause three days before he died, he asked me to promise something.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ever met a woman named Claire Bennett, I was supposed to make sure neither of you went back to that warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room seemed to contract.<\/p>\n
Claire heard her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is there now?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother whispered, \u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property still exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho owns it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not answer.<\/p>\n
I already knew I wouldn't like the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLegally?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do, Evan.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat completely still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn't possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI signed everything from Dad's company away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that parcel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't own a warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou own forty-nine percent of an LLC that does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the other fifty-one?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's silence lasted long enough to become an answer of its own.<\/p>\n
Claire said, \u201cDad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining share belonged to Rebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every nerve in my body seemed to tighten at once.<\/p>\n
Claire whispered, \u201cBelonged?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe left it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward Luca.<\/p>\n
Two families.<\/p>\n
Two dead parents.<\/p>\n
One property neither Claire nor I knew we owned together.<\/p>\n
My father had warned us not to marry.<\/p>\n
Not because we were related.<\/p>\n
Because if we married, two separate inheritances became connected.<\/p>\n
Whatever Rebecca and Michael had tried to bury, their children had accidentally reunited.<\/p>\n
Claire said the thought before I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvan and I own the warehouse together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd neither of us knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice became very quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho did know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel exhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas Vale.\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds, nobody spoke. Luca had stopped fussing in my arms. His cheek rested against my chest, his mouth slightly open, unaware that four adults were holding their breath … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6549,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions\/6549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}