Chương 9
“The lender called me.”
His eyes changed.
It was subtle.
“Which lender?”
I looked at him carefully.
“You know which lender.”
“I’m asking what they said.”
“They asked whether I authorized a forty-eight-thousand-dollar draw.”
“Did you tell them no?”
“Yes.”
His face went pale.
Not frightened.
Angry.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
The garage became very quiet.
“Why?”
“Because now they’ll freeze everything.”
“I asked them to.”
“You have no idea what you just did.”
“Then tell me.”
He looked at Nadine, then Hanley, then back at me.
“Some of that money was covering something temporary.”
“What?”
“I can fix it.”
“What?”
“Give me two days.”
“No.”
“Bernice.”
“What did you do?”
He pressed his lips together.
Officer Hanley said, “Mr. Avery, if you’re referring to a financial matter, you may want legal counsel before discussing it.”
He almost looked grateful.
That told me enough.
I gathered the passports, birth certificate, my laptop, medication, work badge, several days of clothing, and Roger’s school folder.
Hanley documented the red mark on Roger’s wrist from the photographs on my phone and gave me an incident number.
Before I left, Gideon stood in the driveway with his arms folded.
He looked smaller outside the house.
I hated that I noticed.
“You’re blowing up our family over one night,” he said.
I put Roger’s backpack in the trunk.
“No.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I came home because Roger was on the floor.”
“He fell asleep.”
“I know.”
I closed the trunk.
“That’s how I found the door.”
“What door?”
“All the other things.”
His face hardened.
“You think your sister is innocent?”
“No.”
That answer seemed to disappoint him.
“I think she betrayed me.”
“Then why am I the only one being punished?”
“Because you’re standing here.”
He took a step toward me.
Hanley was still by her cruiser.
He noticed and stopped.
“I love you.”
The words hurt more than I expected.
I looked at the man I had kissed before leaving for work the previous evening.
I had told him there was leftover chicken in the refrigerator.
He had reminded me to take my charger.
Nothing about that goodbye had felt historic.
“I believe you think you do.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re taking my son.”
“I’m taking our son somewhere safe while I figure out what happened.”
“I am safe.”
I looked at the scrape on his hand, the suitcases behind him, the folder of photographs, the missing money, and the house where Roger had waited until sleep took him on a kitchen floor.
“I don’t know that anymore.”
Nadine drove behind me to her apartment.
At a red light, my phone buzzed with a message from Diane.
It contained a phone number and two words.
Claire knows.
I stared at the screen until the light turned green and somebody behind me honked.
Back at Nadine’s, Roger ran to me barefoot.
“Did you get red shoes?”
I lifted them from the bag.
He cheered.
For a little while, that was all I could manage.
Red shoes.
Shark book.
Clean underwear.
A banana because he said waffles had made his stomach weird.
I sat beside him while he watched cartoons and waited for my hands to stop trembling.
At ten thirty-two, after Roger fell asleep against the couch cushion, I carried my phone onto Nadine’s balcony and dialed the number Diane had sent.
A woman answered on the third ring.
“Hello?”
“My name is Bernice Avery.”
Nothing.
Then a slow breath.
“I know who you are.”
I gripped the railing.
“You know about me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Gideon contacted me three weeks ago.”
Every thought in my head stopped at once.
“What did he want?”
Claire’s voice remained flat.
“He wanted me to sign something.”
“What?”
“A statement.”
“About what?”
“That I had lied during our divorce.”
My fingers went numb around the phone.
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
“Why would he need that now?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
Claire was silent for several seconds.
When she spoke again, her voice had changed.
Not softer.
More careful.
“He said his current wife was about to discover what he had done with her identity.”
For a moment, I thought I had misheard her.
“What did he do with my identity?”
Claire exhaled slowly.
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Then what did he tell you?”
“He said there were accounts connected to you that might become a problem.”
“What kind of accounts?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
I closed my eyes.
The balcony railing was warm beneath my palm now that the sun had climbed higher.
“Why would he call you?”
“Because he wanted me to sign a statement saying I had misunderstood what happened during our marriage.”
“Misunderstood the credit cards?”
“Yes.”
“What did the statement actually say?”
“That the accounts had been opened with my knowledge and that I had falsely accused him afterward because I was angry about the divorce.”
“Was that true?”
“No.”
Her answer came without hesitation.
I sat in one of Nadine’s plastic patio chairs.
“Did he threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What does that mean?”
“He reminded me that Lily is fourteen.”
I waited.
“That sounds like a fact.”
“It was a threat because he has ignored her for eleven years.”
My stomach turned.
“What did he say about her?”
“That if I didn’t help him, he might decide it was time to reconnect.”
I stared at the apartment building across the courtyard.
Someone on the third floor was shaking crumbs from a tablecloth.
“He used his own daughter as leverage.”
“Yes.”
Claire’s voice stayed calm, but the calm sounded practiced.
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him Lily would decide whether she wanted contact, not him.”
“And?”
“He said courts don’t always agree with mothers.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“Did he file anything?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Did you tell Diane?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Claire gave a short, humorless laugh.
May you like
“Because Diane had eleven years to become curious.”
That answer was fair enough that I did not defend her.
