Chương 8
For the first time since the hospital, anger flashed across her face.
“I am done being sent away when your family decides what happens in my home.”
I opened my mouth.
She stood.
“If you’re going back there, I’m walking in beside you.”
I almost told her that protecting her meant keeping her away from the apartment.
Then I saw the way she was standing.
Her shoulders were back despite the exhaustion in her face.
One hand rested beneath her belly, not delicately, but as if she were steadying herself against a weight she had decided she would carry on her own terms.
“Okay,” I said.
She blinked.
“Okay?”
“You’re coming.”
“That was easier than expected.”
“I’m learning.”
“No, you’re tired.”
“That too.”
Marcus and Renee were waiting near the elevators when we came down.
Marcus had two coffees and the expression of a man who had already decided he hated whatever happened upstairs.
“Well?”
I folded the copies Daniel had given me and slid them into the inside pocket of my jacket.
“My grandfather left me money.”
“How much?”
“Eighty-five thousand.”
Marcus stopped walking.
Renee made a soft sound.
Emily answered the question on both their faces.
“His mother received it.”
Marcus looked at me.
“Received it how?”
“That’s the part we’re still figuring out.”
He handed one coffee to Renee and kept the other.
“You want me there?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised me.
Usually, when something involved my family, I closed ranks.
Even when those ranks consisted of people hurting each other.
Especially then.
I had spent years believing privacy and loyalty were the same thing.
They were not.
Marcus nodded once.
“Then I’m there.”
Renee looked at Emily.
“I’m going too.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
That ended it.
On the drive back to South Chicago, nobody talked much.
The city had brightened into late morning.
Delivery trucks crowded loading zones.
People came out of coffee shops carrying paper cups and staring at their phones.
A woman in scrubs stood at a bus stop eating a granola bar.
Life kept happening with an almost insulting normality.
Halfway there, Emily rested her head against the seat.
I watched her in the mirror.
“You okay?”
“Still pregnant.”
Marcus muttered, “That condition’s been going around.”
Renee elbowed him.
Emily smiled without opening her eyes.
The moment helped.
So did the fact that nobody pretended we were headed toward anything easy.
When we pulled into the apartment lot, my mother’s car was still there.
So were Brittany’s and Kayla’s.
Lily did not own one.
Marcus parked behind me.
I sat for several seconds with my hand on the wheel.
Emily unbuckled.
“Ready?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I looked at her.
“Why good?”
“Because if you said yes, I’d know you were lying.”
We went upstairs together.
The apartment door was unlocked.
That bothered me immediately.
I had spent years telling everyone to lock it.
Nobody listened.
The television was off when we entered.
The pizza boxes were gone.
Someone had swept the floor.
The coffee table had been cleared so completely it looked staged.
Teresa sat in the same couch she had occupied the night before, but the blanket was folded beside her.
Brittany sat near the window.
Kayla was at the dining table.
Lily stood in the kitchen doorway.
They were dressed.
Nobody was scrolling.
Nobody was eating.
They looked like people waiting for a verdict.
My mother’s eyes went first to Emily.
Then to Marcus and Renee.
Her mouth tightened.
“I thought this was a family conversation.”
Marcus stayed near the door.
“It is.”
Teresa looked at him.
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
“I know.”
I took off my jacket.
Emily caught my sleeve before I could hang it up.
“The papers.”
I nodded and kept it with me.
My mother noticed.
Of course she did.
“What papers?”
I looked at her.
“You tell me.”
Brittany shifted.
“Can we not do the dramatic thing?”
I turned toward her.
“What dramatic thing?”
“This.”
She gestured vaguely at all of us.
“You bringing an audience.”
Emily looked at me.
I let her answer.
“They came because Ethan asked them.”
Brittany gave her a flat look.
“Of course he did.”
“Don’t.”
My voice cut across the room.
She looked at me.
“Don’t what?”
“Do not make Emily the problem again.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did it in six words.”
Brittany folded her arms.
My mother sighed.
“Everybody is exhausted.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“Emily is exhausted.”
Teresa’s eyes hardened.
“I sent messages all morning asking how she was.”
“You also told Brittany I was blaming you because of her.”
Brittany glanced at Teresa.
That small movement mattered.
My mother saw it too.
“I said you were upset.”
“That is not what she texted me.”
Teresa stood.
“Fine.”
She smoothed the front of her blouse.
“You want a confrontation, have one.”
“I want the truth.”
“I have never lied to you.”
Kayla looked down at the table.
My mother noticed.
Again.
So did I.
I took the documents from my jacket.
The sound of folded paper opening seemed too loud.
“Walter James Cole.”
Teresa’s face changed.
Not much.
Enough.
“What about your grandfather?”
“His trust.”
Silence.
Brittany looked genuinely confused.
Lily did too.
Kayla did not.
I watched my mother carefully.
“The law office gave me these.”
Teresa’s shoulders lowered a fraction.
“You went there.”
“Yes.”
“You had no business doing that without speaking to me.”
The absurdity of it almost made me laugh.
“I had no business asking about documents with my name on them?”
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked at Marcus.
Then Renee.
Then Emily.
“I’m not discussing private finances in front of strangers.”
Marcus shifted his weight.
Renee said nothing.
“They know enough already,” I said.
“They should not.”
“That ship sailed when my wife ended up in a hospital.”
Teresa’s jaw tightened.
“Those are two completely separate things.”
“Maybe.”
I unfolded the distribution authorization.
May you like
“But we’re discussing both.”
I placed the paper on the coffee table.
