Chapter 7 - The Money That Was Gone
“There was an account,” Thomas said.
Sarah sat down again.
“My college account?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Eleven thousand dollars.”
Daniel pulled out the remaining chair.
Thomas didn’t look away from Sarah.
“Some of it came from your grandparents. Some from us.”
“And you took it.”
“Yes.”
The word landed harder this time.
Sarah pushed the birthday cards away.
Victoria’s message had done what she intended. It had entered the room and turned every tender thing suspicious.
“I didn’t know until afterward that your mother had replaced it,” Thomas said.
“So she cleaned up your mess.”
“That one, yes.”
I watched Sarah struggle to hold two things at once.
Her mother had lied.
Her father had also hurt her.
There wasn’t a version of this where one revelation erased the other.
“Did you pay it back?”
“Eventually.”
“To whom?”
“Your mother. Through an attorney. After I sold my share of my parents’ property.”
“Do you have proof?”
Thomas nodded.
He searched the box and brought out a settlement statement and a letter acknowledging payment.
Sarah didn’t reach for them immediately.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“You don’t have to decide tonight,” Daniel said.
She laughed once, bitterly.
“I was supposed to decide between chocolate and vanilla tonight.”
Thomas moved the papers toward her.
“Your mother had reasons to be angry with me. Good ones.”
Sarah looked up.
“But not to tell me you were dead.”
“No.”
“Not to write that letter.”
“No.”
He took a breath.
“I won’t use what she did to make what I did smaller.”
That was the first thing he said that seemed to steady her.
She gathered the repayment papers, the forged letter, and several envelopes.
“Can I take these?”
“They’re yours.”
At the door, she paused.
“Robert was a good father.”
Thomas nodded.
“I’m glad.”
“I loved him.”
“I’m glad of that, too.”
His voice didn’t carry a claim. No competition. No demand that she move one man out of her heart to make room for another.
Downstairs, the evening had turned cold.
Sarah stood beside the car in her stained white dress.
My phone buzzed.
A message from a guest.
Is Sarah okay? Her mom is saying the waiter tried to extort her.
Attached was a video from the ballroom.
May you like
It started with the cake on the floor.
It ended before Thomas said who he was.
