Chương 3
On the fourth night, Gavin called.
I let it ring twice before answering.
“Hey,” I said.
“Finally.”
Music thumped behind him.
“You’ve been weird all day.”
“I’ve been sleeping.”
“Mom said you didn’t answer her.”
“I was sleeping.”
“You okay?”
The question almost broke me because he sounded like the man I had married.
For one stupid second, I wanted to tell him everything and hear him explain it away.
Then a woman laughed near him, and Paisley shouted something about another round.
“I’m tired,” I said.
“We’ll be home Sunday afternoon.”
“I know.”
“Love you.”
My throat closed.
There was just enough silence for him to notice.
“Maddie?”
“I heard you.”
After the call, I sat in the dark with the phone against my knee.
I did not say it back.
It was the first thing I had taken from him.
It would not be the last.
On Saturday morning, Elena called before I had finished pouring cereal into a bowl.
“Northline isn’t the only one.”
I set the box down.
“What did you find?”
“Two more entities.”
The spoon slipped from my fingers and clattered against the counter.
“One looks dormant.”
“And the other?”
“Active.”
I lowered myself into a chair.
Elena continued before I could ask.
“Gavin incorporated it six months ago under his middle name.”
“What company?”
“Stonebridge Residential Services.”
I stared at the cereal swelling in milk.
“What does it do?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
She shuffled papers.
“It has a bank account, but I can’t see the account itself.”
“How do you know it has one?”
“Because somebody paid an invoice from it back to us.”
“To us?”
“Sixteen thousand four hundred dollars.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Correct.”
I pressed two fingers to my temple.
“Could it be legitimate?”
“It could.”
“You don’t think it is.”
“I don’t think anything yet.”
Elena paused.
“And you need to stop asking me what I think before I have records.”
“That sounded like Samuel.”
“I’m spending too much time with lawyers.”
I looked toward the apartment window.
The same Honda from two days earlier was parked badly again, half a tire against the curb.
“What happens now?”
“I sent everything to the forensic accountant.”
“Does Gavin know?”
“No.”
“Could he find out?”
“If he checks the business portal closely.”
“He checks nothing closely unless money stops moving.”
“That part may become relevant.”
I leaned back.
“What happened?”
“Three payments bounced overnight.”
My stomach tightened.
“Payroll?”
“No.”
“Vendors?”
“Two.”
“And the third?”
“A resort charge.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course.”
“He’s going to notice.”
“Yes.”
I picked up my phone with my free hand.
There were already four messages from Gavin.
The first was a question mark.
The second said CALL ME.
The third said What did you do to the account?
The fourth simply read Madeline.
“He noticed.”
“I assumed he might.”
“Elena.”
“Don’t answer him about company finances without counsel.”
“You enjoy saying things I already know.”
“You enjoy doing things you know better than to do.”
“That is unfortunately fair.”
The line stayed quiet for a moment.
Then Elena said, “You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I’d be more worried if you said yes.”
The cereal had become paste by the time we hung up.
I ate three bites anyway because my obstetrician had developed an unnerving habit of asking whether I was actually eating instead of accepting “I’m fine” as a medical category.
Gavin called six times before noon.
I let every call go unanswered.
At twelve-thirteen, Bernice called.
At twelve-fourteen, Paisley did.
At twelve-seventeen, Gavin sent a voice message.
I almost deleted it.
Instead, I forwarded it to Samuel without listening.
He called ten minutes later.
“You should hear it.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Then don’t.”
I waited.
“That is not helpful.”
“I’m your lawyer, not your confessor.”
“You listened?”
“Yes.”
“Is he threatening me?”
“No.”
“That almost sounds worse.”
“He sounds scared.”
I looked down at my belly.
“Of losing me?”
Samuel did not answer immediately.
“You asked me a legal question yesterday.”
“I know.”
“Today you’re asking a different kind.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know the answer to that one.”
I played the message after we hung up.
Gavin’s voice came through sharp at first.
“Maddie, what the hell is going on?”
There was a pause.
Then his tone dropped.
“I’m not trying to fight with you.”
Another pause.
“I just need to know why company cards aren’t working.”
He breathed near the microphone.
“Call me before Mom notices something’s wrong.”
That last sentence sat in the room with me.
Not before the company collapsed.
Not before an employee missed a paycheck.
Not before we lost a client.
Before Mom notices something’s wrong.
I replayed it once.
Then I forwarded it to Elena.
She responded with a single period.
I called her.
“What does a period mean?”
“It means I had several responses and none were professional.”
Despite myself, I laughed.
The laugh stopped when my abdomen tightened.
I stood automatically.
The pressure wrapped around my middle, hard and unfamiliar.
I gripped the counter.
It lasted less than a minute.
When it released, my hands were shaking.
I called my obstetrician’s office.
The nurse asked questions in a calm voice that made me feel foolish for answering too quickly.
Pain pattern.
Fluid.
Bleeding.
Fetal movement.
Hydration.
Stress.
That last one almost made me laugh again.
“I’ve had some.”
“How much is some?”
“My husband may have been stealing from our business and trying to get my house.”
The nurse was silent.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“That qualifies.”
She told me to drink water, lie on my left side, and call again if the tightening became regular or painful.
I did what she said.
For twenty minutes, I listened to the hum of the apartment refrigerator and counted kicks.
Gavin called twice more.
I turned off notifications.
At three, Samuel arrived with a folder and a woman I had never met.
May you like
“This is Denise Halpern.”
Denise was in her fifties, compact, gray-haired, and dressed like someone who distrusted decorative buttons.
