Chương 4
Her hair was twisted into a loose knot.
She took one look at his face.
“What happened?”
“Not here.”
Her eyes moved past him toward the children.
Lily ran to her.
Rachel bent down and wrapped both arms around her niece.
Noah followed more slowly.
He tucked himself against Rachel's side.
She looked over their heads at Daniel.
His sister's expression did not change much, but he saw her mouth tighten.
“Hey,” Rachel said softly to Lily.
“Bad day?”
Lily nodded against her shoulder.
Rachel kissed the top of her head.
“I've had those.”
Noah sniffed.
“Mom put us in the shed.”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Not yet.
Rachel recovered quickly.
“Well,” she said, rubbing Noah's back.
“I brought absolutely nothing useful, so that's excellent planning on my part.”
Lily gave a tiny laugh.
The sound nearly undid Daniel.
Rachel sat with the children.
Daniel walked toward the back doors.
Claire stood before he reached them.
This time he opened the door and stepped outside.
He pulled it closed behind him.
Claire glanced toward Rachel inside.
“You called her.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
“Tell me about the kitchen.”
Claire's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“You said you were getting an estimate.”
“I was.”
“For what?”
“Renovations.”
“Which renovations?”
“The cabinets.”
“Why?”
“Because I hate them.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire looked away.
The hedges along the rear property line moved slightly in the breeze.
One of the sprinklers clicked somewhere beyond the side yard.
“Try again,” Daniel said.
Her head snapped back toward him.
“Excuse me?”
“You weren't arranging cabinets because you hate cabinets.”
“You've decided that?”
“Noah heard the call.”
Claire's face changed.
Only for a fraction of a second.
It was enough.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What were you trying to get done before I found out?”
“Children misunderstand things.”
“What were you trying to get done?”
“Nothing.”
“Claire.”
“Stop interrogating me.”
“What were you trying to hide?”
She folded her arms.
“I wasn't hiding anything.”
“You deleted a message admitting you made a mistake.”
“That was about the shed.”
“Then why delete it?”
“Because I knew you'd use it like evidence.”
The word hung between them.
Daniel had not said evidence.
Claire seemed to hear that too.
She looked toward the camera under the roofline.
Then toward the open wooden shed.
Daniel followed her eyes.
Near the threshold, partially hidden beneath a folded gardening tarp, something white caught the sunlight.
He walked over.
Claire said his name.
He ignored her.
Daniel bent and pulled the object free.
It was an envelope.
Thick.
Cream-colored.
His name was written across the front in blue ink.
Not mailed.
Not sealed.
Just his name.
He turned it over.
Claire had stopped breathing normally.
“Give me that.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What is it?”
“It's nothing.”
“You just told me to give it to you.”
“Because it's private.”
“My name is on it.”
“Daniel.”
He opened the flap.
Inside was a photocopy of a cashier’s check request form from a bank Daniel recognized.
The amount printed in the box was forty-eight thousand dollars.
For several seconds, the number meant nothing.
Then the account number beneath it registered.
It was theirs.
Claire moved toward him.
“Daniel, give me the envelope.”
He stepped back.
“What is this?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“I haven’t told you what I think.”
“You don’t understand the context.”
“Then give me the context.”
She looked toward the house.
Rachel was sitting on the sofa with Lily and Noah, both children tucked close against her.
Claire lowered her voice.
“I was moving money.”
“I can see that.”
“It wasn’t gone.”
“Forty-eight thousand dollars isn’t a little adjustment between accounts.”
“It was temporary.”
“For what?”
Claire pressed her lips together.
Daniel looked down again.
There was another sheet inside.
A contractor proposal.
The company name meant nothing to him.
The address did.
Their house.
The description beneath it listed demolition, cabinetry, stone surfaces, electrical work, appliances, and custom millwork.
The total estimate was eighty-six thousand dollars.
Daniel read it twice.
Then he looked at Claire.
“You were spending eighty-six thousand dollars on a kitchen renovation without telling me.”
“I hadn’t approved the full project.”
“You requested forty-eight thousand from our account.”
“For the deposit.”
“You said you hadn’t approved it.”
“I was deciding.”
“With a cashier’s check?”
Her nostrils flared.
“You don’t have to cross-examine every sentence.”
“I do when none of them agree with each other.”
Claire looked past him toward the shed.
“The envelope wasn’t supposed to be out here.”
“That part I believe.”
“I was looking for it.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Why was it in the shed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
“I said I don’t know.”
Daniel held up the proposal.
“Did Lily find this?”
Claire’s eyes moved away.
That was answer enough.
He felt the anger inside him change shape.
It became colder.
“Did she?”
“She was going through things that weren’t hers.”
“She’s seven.”
“She knows not to take papers from my desk.”
“Was this on your desk?”
Claire rubbed the back of her neck.
“No.”
“Where was it?”
“In my closet.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire spoke faster.
“I had it in a drawer because I didn’t want the kids coloring on it or spilling something on it, and Lily went into the room looking for one of her dance bags.”
“So she found it.”
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
“She brought it downstairs.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she ask you about it?”
Claire’s shoulders dropped slightly.
“She saw your name.”
Daniel looked at the envelope again.
His name.
Blue ink.
Lily had probably assumed it belonged to him.
“What did you do when she handed it to you?”
“I told her to give it back.”
“And she didn’t?”
“She wanted to know why your name was on something I told her not to touch.”
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment.
May you like
He could picture it too easily.
Lily standing in the kitchen in her loose cream dress, holding the envelope with the solemn curiosity she brought to anything involving adult rules.
