Chapter 4 - THE FIRST BOX
By the time I returned, two more boxes were in my living room.
Jessica sat on the couch, comparing paint samples against my wall.
I held up the printed inquiry. “What is Hearthstone Home Solutions?”
Her hand froze.
Matthew came in from the kitchen. “What?”
“Hearthstone. They were told I’m transferring this house to you.”
Jessica set down the samples. “We were looking into options.”
“For whose house?”
Matthew gave her a sharp look. “Jess.”
“We never signed anything,” she said.
“That wasn’t my question.”
He took a breath. “A man at work knew somebody who could tell us what the house might sell for. We’ve been trying to get ahead financially.”
“You could have asked me what I thought.”
“We weren’t asking you to sell,” Matthew said.
“Someone told that company I was.”
Jessica stood. “People say things when they’re gathering information. It doesn’t mean anything happened.”
It meant enough for my attorney to be concerned.
Matthew followed me into the hall. “Mom, our lease really did end. That part is true. We fell behind, and the landlord wouldn’t renew.”
I stopped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was embarrassed.”
It was the first honest thing he had said since I got home.
“I would have listened,” I said.
“I know.”
But he looked toward Jessica before saying anything else.
I spent the afternoon in the garage. My decorations were packed into damp cardboard boxes near the side door. George’s jacket had been folded beneath a plastic bin. His wooden star lay at the bottom of another box with one point broken.
I sat on the garage step and held it in both hands.
Matthew found me there.
“I didn’t know she’d put that away,” he said.
“You saw the tree.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t ask where the star went.”
He had no answer.
After a while, he sat beside me. “I can fix it.”
“George made it crooked on purpose. He said that was how we’d know it was ours.”
Matthew touched the broken point. “I remember.”
For a moment, he was the boy who used to help his father untangle Christmas lights.
Then his phone buzzed. Jessica’s name lit up the screen, though she was only inside the house. He stood to answer it.
I carried the star back in myself.
That evening, I opened my banking app while waiting for tea to boil. The checking balance was where I expected it to be. The savings balance was not.
A transfer of $8,400 had left my account nine days earlier.
May you like
The destination was an account I didn’t recognize.
The transaction note read: HOME EXPENSES — MATTHEW.
