Chapter 7 - WHAT WAS IN THE TRUNK
“Open the trunk, Jessica.”
She gave a hard laugh. “It’s a quilt.”
“It’s mine.”
Jessica unlocked the car. Inside were two boxes of ornaments, the quilt, George’s jacket, and a framed photograph from our wedding.
I lifted the frame. The glass was cracked.
“I was going to keep them safe,” she said.
“You packed them in a trunk without telling me.”
“What do you want from me, Ellie? I’m trying to make a home.”
“You already had one. You lost it, and you came here without asking.”
She looked away first.
I brought everything inside. Helen photographed the boxes and the cracked frame for my records. Jessica watched from the driveway, furious that someone else was there to see it.
Matthew came home early.
Helen handed him the notice. He read it while Jessica stood beside him.
“Mom, we need more than two days,” he said.
“I asked you to leave two days ago. You used that time to arrange a meeting about selling my house.”
“I canceled it.”
“I canceled it.”
He folded the paper. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“You can stay in a hotel while you look for an apartment. I’ll help you find one if you want help that starts with an honest conversation.”
Jessica laughed bitterly. “A hotel. Right before Christmas.”
Matthew turned to her. “We have enough for a few nights.”
“We have enough because we used her money,” she said.
Helen’s eyes lifted from her folder.
Jessica seemed to realize what she had said. “I mean, we were going to repay it.”
I went into the kitchen before I said something I couldn’t take back.
That evening, Matthew knocked on my door. He held a printout showing the bank transfer and three payments made from it.
The back rent was $3,200. The moving company had cost $900. A credit card payment was $4,300.
“Whose card?” I asked.
Jessica’s.
“I didn’t know how much she owed until the landlord called,” Matthew said.
“Why was the landlord calling you about her card?”
“He wasn’t. It all came out when we were trying to pay the rent.”
I studied his face. “Is that everything?”
“Yes.”
He said it quickly.
Too quickly.
After he left, I spread the payments across my bed. The credit card account showed a partial number. I remembered seeing the same last four digits in the Hearthstone paperwork.
I checked the email Daniel had sent.
Jessica had used that card to pay a $500 deposit toward photographs and marketing for a house she did not own.
Then a new message arrived from Helen.
The bank’s access log had come in. My account had been opened from the kitchen tablet six times while I was away.
May you like
Five sessions were late at night.
The sixth had happened that morning.
