Chapter 3
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Mark said nothing.
I held the phone higher.
“Tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”
He glanced toward the hallway.
“Keep your voice down.”
I almost couldn’t believe him.
“Forty-three thousand dollars disappeared from Emma’s account, and your concern is my volume?”
“It isn’t gone.”
“The account says zero.”
“I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
He pushed past me into the bedroom and closed the door.
That made me angrier.
He was still protecting the secret.
Still protecting Linda.
Still protecting himself.
“Mom was in trouble,” he said.
I stared at him.
“What kind of trouble costs forty-three thousand dollars?”
“She was behind on the house.”
“Then she should have sold the house.”
“Claire.”
“No. Don’t Claire me. That money belonged to Emma.”
“It was sitting there.”
I felt physically sick.
“Sitting there?”
“She’s eight. College is ten years away.”
“It was left by her dead father.”
Mark’s face tightened.
“I’m her father.”
“Then why did you take from her?”
He looked wounded.
That almost made me laugh.
He was standing in front of me after secretly emptying my daughter’s account, and somehow he wanted to look hurt.
“I was going to replace it.”
“When?”
“As soon as the bonus comes through.”
“You told me your bonus was already committed to the roof.”
“I changed plans.”
“Without telling me.”
“Because I knew you’d react like this.”
For a second I couldn’t speak.
Then I whispered, “You mean I would have said no.”
He looked away.
“That’s why you didn’t ask.”
“It was an emergency.”
“For your mother.”
“Yes.”
“Not for Emma.”
“She didn’t need it right now.”
I stepped back.
There it was.
Linda’s poison coming out of my husband’s mouth.
Emma didn’t need it.
Linda did.
Emma wasn’t blood.
Linda was.
Every small excuse suddenly fit together.
Every holiday when Linda complained we spent too much on Emma.
Every time Mark asked whether Evan’s money could be used for family expenses.
Every time I said no.
I looked at the transaction again.
“How did you get access?”
Mark didn’t answer.
I was the registered custodian.
Mark had never been authorized to withdraw a dollar.
“How did you transfer it?”
His silence became unbearable.
“Mark.”
“I had paperwork.”
“What paperwork?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
I knew that gesture too.
He had done it years ago when I caught him lying about a credit card.
My heart began pounding.
“What did you do?”
“Mom knew someone at the branch.”
I stared at him.
“You forged my signature.”
He immediately shook his head.
“Don’t use that word.”
“What word would you prefer?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Did I sign permission?”
“No.”
“Did you write my name?”
He said nothing.
I whispered, “Oh my God.”
“It was a temporary transfer.”
“You forged my signature.”
“Claire, listen.”
“No.”
I backed away from him.
He stepped toward me.
I raised my hand.
“Do not come closer.”
His face changed.
For the first time, he seemed to understand how serious this was.
“You’re acting like I robbed a stranger.”
“You robbed a child.”
“I’m her father.”
“You keep saying that like it makes stealing from her better.”
He raised his voice.
“I have spent years providing for her.”
I felt something break inside me.
“So that bought you the right to take her inheritance?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
He paced away from me.
“I paid for dance. Clothes. Doctors. Vacations. Her room. That ridiculous bounce house downstairs.”
I stared at him.
“You’re listing the cost of raising your daughter.”
“She isn’t biologically—”
He stopped.
Too late.
The room went silent.
I watched his face.
He watched mine.
Neither of us could put those words back.
I opened the bedroom door.
“Get out.”
“Claire.”
“Get out of this room.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You meant it exactly like that.”
I heard Linda’s voice downstairs.
“Mark?”
Of course she was still there.
Of course nobody had made her leave.
Mark looked toward the stairs.
Then back at me.
“We can fix this.”
“You’re going downstairs and telling your mother to leave.”
“Let’s talk when everyone’s gone.”
“Your mother is everyone.”
He stared at me.
I could see anger building now.
That familiar family anger.
The anger they used whenever someone refused to play along.
“This is my house too.”
“Yes.”
“So you don’t get to dictate who stays.”
“Then Emma and I will go.”
He blocked the doorway.
Not aggressively.
Not yet.
But enough.
My entire body went alert.
“Move.”
“Don’t take her and run because you’re emotional.”
“Move, Mark.”
“Claire, be reasonable.”
Behind him, Jenna appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Mark.”
He turned.
Jenna’s eyes moved from him to me.
“Move away from the door.”
He scoffed.
“Stay out of this.”
“I heard enough.”
She walked closer.
“You took Emma’s money?”
Mark’s face hardened.
“Mom told you?”
“No. You just did.”
He looked at me with fury.
As if I had betrayed him by speaking loudly enough to be heard.
Jenna stared at her brother.
“How much?”
I answered.
“Forty-three thousand.”
She went white.
Then Linda called from downstairs again.
“What is taking so long?”
Jenna looked toward the stairwell.
Something changed in her expression.
“She told me it was twenty.”
I turned.
“What?”
Jenna covered her mouth.
“Oh God.”
“What are you talking about?”
She lowered her voice.
“Mom told me Mark loaned her twenty thousand from savings.”
I stared at Mark.
He said nothing.
Jenna looked furious.
“So where did the other twenty-three go?”
Mark snapped, “This is none of your business.”
Jenna laughed once.
“You made it my business when Mom asked me for twelve thousand last month.”
My pulse jumped.
“Last month?”
“She said the bank was threatening foreclosure.”
I looked at Mark again.
He seemed trapped now.
Not guilty.
Trapped.
Like the problem wasn’t what he had done.
The problem was that too many people knew.
I grabbed a small suitcase from the closet.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Leaving.”
“You’re not taking Emma.”
I stopped packing.
“What did you say?”
His eyes shifted.
“I mean, we need to talk before you just leave with our daughter.”
Our daughter.
Suddenly he remembered the word.
I zipped the bag.
“I’m taking Emma somewhere she isn’t being told she’s less than family.”
“Claire, don’t threaten me.”
“That isn’t a threat.”
I walked past him.
Jenna followed me into Emma’s room.
Emma was sitting on the bed with her stuffed rabbit pressed against her chest.
I forced a smile.
“Baby, we’re going to Aunt Rachel’s tonight.”
She looked frightened.
“Is Daddy coming?”
I couldn’t answer immediately.
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“Because of me?”
I dropped to my knees.
“Never because of you.”
Mark appeared behind me.
“Emma.”
She looked at him.
He took one step inside.
“I love you.”
She stared at him for a long second.
Then she asked, “Why did you take my dad’s money?”
Mark stopped breathing.
I hadn’t told her.
I looked at Linda.
May you like
She was standing farther down the hall.
And the satisfaction on her face told me exactly who had.
