Chương 7
“The draft is Wednesday,” Maya said. “I’ll let this one go through.”
Victoria exhaled.
“But it is the last payment from my account. You change everything today.”
“I said I’m trying.”
“No. Call them. Then text me the confirmation.”
“You don’t get to give me assignments.”
“Then let the payment fail.”
“You just said you’d pay it.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Jesus, Maya.”
“Call them.”
Maya ended the call.
Her hands were shaking.
She hated that more than the argument.
When she returned to the office, Denise was waiting beside her desk with a folder.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
“That sounded like no.”
Maya sat.
Denise placed the folder down but did not leave.
“My sister,” Maya said.
Denise nodded with the solemn recognition of someone who had a sister too.
“Do you need ten minutes?”
“I already took lunch.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Maya looked at the folder.
“Yes,” she said.
She went to the restroom, locked herself in a stall, and cried without making noise.
Afterward she washed her face and returned to work.
At three twenty, Victoria sent a screenshot from the insurance website showing a new payment account ending in 4418.
Done.
No thank-you. No acknowledgment.
Maya zoomed in on the screenshot.
The account holder’s name was hidden, but the last four digits were familiar. Victoria had used that checking account before buying the townhouse.
She had not been unable to replace the payment method. She had been unwilling.
Maya forwarded the screenshot to herself and placed her phone away.
That evening, she reviewed every payment connected to the townhouse.
Electricity averaged $214 a month. Water and sewer, $76. Internet, $89. Insurance, $684 twice a year. A quarterly homeowners association fee of $390 had been added the previous spring after Victoria claimed she might face a lien.
Maya found the text in which Victoria had asked.
Can you cover HOA just this once? Work has been slow and I had to replace the dishwasher.
Three weeks later, Victoria had posted photographs from a weekend in Miami. Maya had seen the pictures and believed Victoria’s explanation that Khloe’s boyfriend had covered the hotel.
The bank records showed four years of payments.
Maya exported them into a spreadsheet.
At first she told herself she was gathering information in case Victoria disputed the amount. Then she began adding categories.
Mortgage transfers: $54,000.
Utilities: $12,847.
Insurance: $4,112.
Property tax and HOA: $6,940.
Repairs, furniture, appliances, groceries for parties, and the emergency plumber after Victoria flushed makeup wipes: difficult to calculate.
The known total exceeded seventy-seven thousand dollars.
Maya stared at the number.
She earned sixty-three thousand a year before taxes.
Her phone rang.
This time it was Khloe.
Maya nearly declined, then answered.
“I’m not calling to apologize,” Khloe said.
“That’s efficient.”
“I am sorry. I just don’t think you need four identical calls.”
Maya leaned back in her chair.
“What do you need?”
“I want to tell you something Victoria won’t.”
“All right.”
“She has money.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know exactly. But she has an emergency account.”
“Why do you know that?”
“We were talking about savings at work. She said she keeps at least six months of mortgage payments untouched.”
Maya looked at the spreadsheet.
“When was this?”
“April.”
“This April?”
“Yes.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said women should never depend on anyone.”
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Khloe cleared her throat. “I thought you should know before you paid anything else.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s more, but it might not be useful.”
“Tell me.”
“She asked me to say Aunt Helen misunderstood.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What did you say?”
“That I watched you cancel the transfer.”
Maya pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead.
Khloe continued, “She says you always threaten to stop helping and then calm down.”
“I have never threatened.”
“That’s what I assumed.”
Maya opened her email and attached the spreadsheet, then stopped before sending it anywhere.
“What happens at work?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You all work together.”
“Nothing official. It was a private party.”
“But people talk.”
“People always talk.”
“Will it affect her job?”
“I don’t know. Probably not directly. She’s good at what she does.”
The fairness of the answer relieved Maya.
She did not want Victoria fired. She did not want her homeless. She wanted something less dramatic and more difficult: for Victoria’s life to become accurately hers.
Khloe lowered her voice. “Becca wants to confront her.”
“Tell Becca not to use me.”
“I did.”
“Thank you.”
“Lauren thinks we’re being cruel.”
“Maybe you are.”
Khloe paused. “You don’t make this easy.”
“I’ve spent years making things easy.”
“All right.”
Before hanging up, Khloe said, “For what it’s worth, the cake was beautiful.”
Maya looked toward the glass container drying beside the sink.
“It tasted better before she put her finger through it,” she said.
Khloe laughed, startled and brief.
After the call, Maya added another line to the spreadsheet.
Estimated emergency savings: unknown.
She closed the file.
On Wednesday, the insurance payment drafted from her checking account. Victoria had changed the payment method too late for the scheduled withdrawal.
Maya texted her.
The insurance took $684 from my account. Reimburse me by Friday.
Victoria replied twenty minutes later.
I changed it like you asked. That isn’t my fault.
Maya sent the insurer’s confirmation showing the effective date.
Friday.
No answer came.
On Thursday evening, Aunt Helen visited.
She brought no food this time. She sat at the dining table while Maya showed her the spreadsheet.
Helen read each line twice.
When she reached the total, she removed her glasses.
“I knew it was a lot,” she said.
“You knew about the monthly transfer.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about insurance.”
“Some of it.”
“You knew about the property taxes because you told me not to let the escrow account fall behind.”
Helen placed her glasses on the table.
“I did.”
“You helped me do this.”
May you like
“Yes.”
Maya stood and walked to the sink.
