Chapter 4 - THE WOMEN WHO KNEW
At nine the next morning, Dad asked whether I wanted to speak with an attorney.
Not his company attorney.
Someone who worked for me.
“Yes,” I said.
Saying that one word felt worse than leaving the house.
Leaving could still be explained as exhaustion.
Calling an attorney meant admitting I might not return.
Maya Brooks arrived with a plain notebook and no promises.
She listened while I fed Wren.
Then she asked, “What do you need today?”
“My car. Our things. And for everyone to stop telling me I’m confused.”
“You sound clear to me.”
My throat tightened.
Maya helped me make a list: account records, messages, documents, essential belongings.
“No big decisions while people are shouting at you,” she said. “We’ll work through the immediate problems first.”
At noon, Faye called.
Roland’s older sister had always been pleasant in the careful way people are pleasant when they don’t want trouble.
“I didn’t know,” she said.
“About the dinner?”
“About you being left at home. Roland said you’d asked for a quiet evening.”
“There wasn’t a place set for me.”
“He told me yesterday morning you weren’t coming.”
I looked down at Wren.
Yesterday morning.
Hours before he had stood in our kitchen and pretended to decide what was easiest.
“Did you see your mother’s message?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I told her it was cruel.”
“Before or after I left?”
Silence.
“After,” she admitted.
I appreciated the truth.
It still hurt.
Then Faye lowered her voice.
“Did your father send the investment?”
My body went still.
“Why?”
“Roland said there was a delay.”
“What delay?”
“The funds were supposed to arrive after Wren was born.”
I gripped the edge of the couch.
“Faye. What did you sign?”
She didn’t answer.
“What did you sign?”
“A loan. Ben and I borrowed against the house. Ninety thousand dollars.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why would you do that?”
“Roland said your father had already committed. We were only covering the gap.”
Behind her, I heard a door shut.
Then a man’s voice.
“Ask her about the letter.”
Ben.
Faye began to cry.
“He showed us a letter from your father’s office.”
I looked across the room at Dad.
He understood before I spoke.
“There is no letter,” he said.
Faye heard him.
May you like
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then she whispered, “It has his signature.”
