Chapter 2
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
The man on the phone kept talking.
“Mrs. Carter?”
I stared at Ryan.
His face had changed.
The anger was gone.
Now there was fear.
Real fear.
I pressed the phone harder against my ear.
“Who are you?”
“This is Daniel Harper from Lakeshore Community Bank. Your mother is here with me. She came in because she believed a payment had been made toward her medical account, but her balance was almost empty.”
My heart started pounding.
“My mother is there?”
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s upset, but physically she seems all right.”
I closed my eyes.
Thank God.
Then I looked at Ryan again.
“Where did the money go?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I’m not authorized to disclose details over the phone without your mother’s consent.”
A faint voice sounded in the background.
My mother.
“Tell her.”
My throat tightened.
Daniel returned.
“The funds were transferred electronically at 8:14 this morning.”
“To where?”
Another pause.
“To an account ending in 4421.”
Linda dropped her fork.
The tiny sound seemed louder than the Christmas music playing in the living room.
I looked at her.
She was pale now.
Ryan stepped toward me.
“Emily, hang up.”
I almost laughed.
“What?”
“Hang up the phone.”
Daniel heard him.
“Mrs. Carter, is someone pressuring you right now?”
I backed away from Ryan.
“No.”
Ryan reached for the phone.
I pulled it against my chest.
“Don’t touch me.”
His parents, his sister, his brother-in-law, and two cousins were staring at us.
Nobody spoke.
I turned to Linda.
“What account ends in 4421?”
She folded her hands.
“I have no idea.”
I watched her eyes.
She wouldn’t look directly at me.
Then something clicked.
Months earlier, Linda had asked me to help her set up automatic payments on her tablet.
Her checking account.
I had seen the last four digits.
4421.
My stomach dropped.
“That’s your account.”
Linda’s eyes snapped toward me.
Ryan moved between us.
“You’re confused.”
“No.”
I pointed at his mother.
“That is Linda’s account.”
Everyone started talking at once.
Linda stood.
“This is ridiculous.”
Daniel’s voice came through the phone.
“Mrs. Carter, I strongly recommend your mother file a fraud report immediately.”
Fraud.
The word hit the room like a gunshot.
Ryan’s sister Megan stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
“Mom?”
Linda glared at her.
“Sit down.”
Megan didn’t.
“Did you take her mother’s money?”
“It was not her mother’s money.”
I stared at Linda.
“What did you just say?”
Her face tightened.
Ryan closed his eyes.
And suddenly I understood something worse.
This wasn’t a mistake.
They had discussed it.
Together.
I turned to my husband.
“You knew.”
He said nothing.
“You knew she took it.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
My burned arm throbbed.
My cheek still stung from his slap.
But those pains suddenly felt distant.
“What was supposed to happen?”
Ryan looked around the table.
“This is private.”
“You slapped me in front of your whole family.”
My voice rose.
“There is nothing private anymore.”
His father, Thomas, finally spoke.
“Ryan, answer her.”
Ryan turned on him.
“Stay out of this.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“This happened in my presence. I’m already in it.”
Linda snapped, “Thomas, be quiet.”
He stared at his wife.
Something passed between them.
Something old.
Something ugly.
I suddenly realized Ryan wasn’t the only person in that room who had secrets.
Daniel spoke again.
“Mrs. Carter, should I contact law enforcement?”
Ryan lunged toward the phone.
I stepped back.
“Don’t.”
His fists tightened.
I saw it.
Everybody saw it.
Megan moved toward me.
“Emily, come stand by me.”
Ryan stared at his sister.
“Seriously?”
“You just hit your wife.”
“She stole from me.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I transferred money I earned to help my sick mother.”
“You didn’t ask me.”
“Because every time my mother needs anything, you tell me she’s manipulating me.”
“She is.”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“She’s sick.”
Linda laughed bitterly.
“Everyone is always sick when they need money.”
I turned toward her.
“My mother has a mass on her liver.”
The room went silent again.
Linda’s expression flickered.
Only for a second.
Then she lifted her chin.
“That still doesn’t mean you can take household funds without permission.”
“Permission?”
I could barely speak.
“I worked overtime for four months. Almost all of that five thousand came from my paycheck.”
Ryan pointed toward the hallway.
“Enough. We’ll talk upstairs.”
“No.”
His face darkened.
“Emily.”
“No.”
I had said that word to Ryan before.
Usually quietly.
Usually when he wanted something I didn’t.
And usually, after enough pressure, I changed it to yes.
Not tonight.
He stepped closer.
I held up the phone.
“If you touch me again, the bank employee listening to this conversation will call the police.”
Ryan stopped.
Daniel said calmly, “That is correct.”
Megan covered her mouth.
One of Ryan’s cousins suddenly became very interested in his plate.
Linda looked furious.
“Are you threatening my son?”
I stared at her.
“Your son just hit me.”
“You provoked him.”
Megan whispered, “Mom.”
Linda ignored her.
“A wife does not empty a savings account behind her husband’s back.”
“Five thousand dollars was not even ten percent of that account.”
Thomas looked sharply at Ryan.
“What?”
Ryan glared at me.
I suddenly felt cold.
Thomas stood.
“How much is in your savings?”
“Dad, don’t.”
“How much?”
I answered.
“About sixty-two thousand.”
Thomas stared at his son.
“And you slapped her over five?”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
“It isn’t the amount. It’s the principle.”
“No,” I said.
“It’s control.”
The sentence came out before I had time to think about it.
Ryan looked at me differently.
Like he had never expected me to name it.
Linda stepped forward.
“Watch yourself.”
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
My arm was burned.
My cheek was swelling.
My sick mother had just had money stolen from her account.
And somehow Linda was warning me.
“You transferred the money.”
She said nothing.
I continued.
“You had access because Ryan gave you information.”
Still nothing.
Then Megan whispered, “Mom, answer her.”
Linda turned.
“I was protecting my son.”
My heart stopped.
There it was.
The confession.
Thomas swore under his breath.
Megan looked sick.
Ryan said, “Mom.”
But Linda had already decided to fight.
“She took money that belonged to your marriage.”
“So you stole it from a sick woman?”
“I recovered it.”
“To your personal account.”
“Temporarily.”
“For what?”
Silence.
I looked at Ryan.
“For what?”
His eyes went toward the floor.
That was when I knew there was more.
Much more.
I told Daniel I would call back.
Then I ended the call.
Ryan immediately moved toward me.
I raised my hand.
“Stay there.”
He stopped.
I looked from him to Linda.
“I want the truth.”
Linda crossed her arms.
“You’re being dramatic.”
I looked down at the red skin on my arm.
Then I looked at the soup soaked into my dress.
Then at my husband.
“You slapped me so hard I fell into a serving cart.”
No one breathed.
“Tell me the truth.”
Thomas slowly sat back down.
His expression was grim.
Ryan rubbed the back of his neck.
“We needed the money.”
“What money?”
He looked at his mother.
I followed his eyes.
Linda’s face went rigid.
Then Ryan said it.
“The savings.”
My mouth went dry.
“What about it?”
He swallowed.
“There isn’t sixty-two thousand dollars anymore.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Ryan,” Linda warned.
But he kept going.
“There’s less.”
“How much less?”
He said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“How much is left?”
Megan whispered, “Oh God.”
Ryan looked at me.
“About nine thousand.”
The room tilted.
I grabbed the back of a chair.
“No.”
“Emily—”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I checked that account three weeks ago.”
“I moved money after that.”
“Fifty-three thousand dollars?”
He didn’t answer.
I felt like I had stopped understanding English.
“What did you do?”
Ryan’s eyes filled with anger again.
Not shame.
Anger.
As if I were the one embarrassing him.
“I invested it.”
“In what?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It absolutely matters!”
“It was supposed to pay off.”
My heartbeat hammered in my ears.
“What did you invest fifty-three thousand dollars in?”
Linda interrupted.
“It was a business opportunity.”
I turned toward her.
“You knew?”
She lifted her chin.
“Yes.”
“And the five thousand?”
Ryan answered.
“We were trying to cover a payment due tomorrow.”
I stared at them.
“You stole from my sick mother because you needed to cover a payment?”
“It was going back.”
“When?”
“After the deal closed.”
“What deal?”
Ryan looked at Linda again.
That tiny glance told me everything.
He didn’t want me to know.
So I picked up my purse.
Ryan immediately blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“To my mother.”
“We are not done talking.”
“I am.”
“You’re not leaving.”
The room became completely still.
I looked at him.
“What did you say?”
His voice lowered.
“You’re upset. You’re not driving.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Thomas stood.
“Ryan.”
“Dad, stay out of it.”
Thomas walked around the table.
“Move away from your wife.”
Ryan laughed once.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do in my house.”
Thomas looked toward me.
“Emily, do you want to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re leaving.”
Linda rushed toward her husband.
“Thomas!”
He turned on her.
“Enough.”
She actually stepped back.
I had never heard him raise his voice.
Not once in the eight years I had known him.
Thomas looked at Ryan.
“If you stop her, I call the police myself.”
Ryan stared at his father.
For a moment I thought he might hit him too.
Then he moved.
I walked toward the hallway.
Megan followed me.
“I’ll get your coat.”
“I don’t need it.”
“It’s twelve degrees outside.”
My hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t even zip my purse.
Megan gently took it.
Then she whispered, “Emily, don’t go alone.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Her eyes flicked toward the dining room.
“There are things you don’t know.”
A chill moved through me.
“What things?”
She hesitated.
Then Ryan shouted from behind us.
“Megan!”
She jumped.
I turned.
Ryan was standing in the doorway.
Linda was behind him.
And in that moment I understood something that frightened me more than the missing money.
They were afraid Megan would talk.
I took her hand.
“Come with me.”
She nodded.
Ryan stepped forward.
“You’re not dragging my sister into this.”
Megan looked at him.
“She didn’t drag me into anything.”
“Megan.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
But she kept talking.
“You and Mom have lied long enough.”
Linda’s face turned white.
“Megan, think very carefully about what you’re saying.”
“I have.”
Ryan started toward us.
Thomas stepped between him and the hallway.
“Let them go.”
I opened the front door.
The freezing air hit my wet dress and burned skin.
But I barely felt it.
Megan followed me outside.
As we reached my car, she grabbed my arm.
“Emily.”
I turned.
Her face was terrified.
“The fifty-three thousand dollars isn’t the worst thing.”
I stared at her.
She swallowed.
May you like
Then she said, “Ryan took out a second mortgage on your house three months ago.”
And suddenly the cold outside felt warmer than the home I had just left.
