Chapter 4 - Where the Money Went
Six weeks earlier, Victoria had shown me a photograph of Noah.
A thin little boy in a hospital gown, grinning around a missing front tooth.
“Emily would never ask,” she had said. “But they’re drowning.”
I remembered feeling proud of her.
That memory made me sick.
“She said the hospital needed help covering his care,” I told Emily. “She asked me to move eighty thousand into her household account.”
Emily stared.
“Eighty thousand?”
“You didn’t know?”
She shook her head.
“Mrs. Cole gave me two thousand dollars.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
“For Noah?”
“She said it was an advance. She’s been taking it out of my checks.”
I sat down because my knees would no longer hold me.
Across from us, a vending machine hummed. Somewhere a child laughed at a television.
Ordinary sounds.
A world still functioning while mine came apart.
Emily watched my face.
“I thought you knew.”
Four words.
No accusation.
Somehow worse.
I opened my bank app and found the transfer. Eighty thousand dollars. The memo said NOAH MEDICAL.
I showed her.
She covered her mouth.
“I didn’t get that.”
A nurse stepped out of Noah’s room.
“He’s awake, Mom.”
Emily stood immediately.
“You can go in,” I said.
She hesitated.
“Your babies—”
“Are with their aunt. Go be with your son.”
She entered the room slowly, as if approaching something she was afraid would disappear.
Noah turned his head.
“Mom?”
“I’m here, baby.”
“You missed the rocket show.”
“I know.”
“It’s okay. They’ll play it again.”
I turned away.
I could face anger.
That nearly broke me.
My phone vibrated.
Victoria.
I let it ring.
Then a text appeared.
You are making a terrible mistake.
A second followed.
Ask Emily why she was in my office yesterday.
I looked through the glass.
Emily was kissing Noah’s forehead.
I wanted that to be the end of it. My wife was cruel. Emily was innocent. The truth had finally become simple.
But I had spent years accepting whatever explanation made my life easier.
I wasn’t doing that again.
When Emily came back out, I showed her the message.
She read it.
Then closed her eyes.
“I was looking for my pay records.”
“What did you find?”
“A folder with my name on it.”
“And?”
May you like
She swallowed.
“According to those papers, you already paid me to disappear.”
