Chương 13
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled again.
“He kept asking about the car after that.”
Grandpa asked, “Did he photograph anything?”
“I saw him take pictures of the dashboard.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know.”
Ava pressed her fingers to her temples.
“I went upstairs once to get something.”
“At the apartment?”
“Yes.”
“How long was he alone with the vehicle?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes.”
Deputy Harris asked, “Was that before or after the loan application in Amelia’s name?”
Ava stared at him.
“I don’t know the date.”
I did.
The application was four days old.
I pulled up the trip history.
There had been a three-hour stop at the Fort Mill apartment five days ago.
Ava leaned over the screen.
“That day.”
She looked at me.
“That was the day.”
Grandpa’s voice was almost a whisper.
“You left him alone with the SUV one day before someone submitted that application.”
Ava nodded.
No one said anything for a while.
Deputy Harris broke the silence.
“That timeline matters.”
He photographed the screen.
After he left, Grandpa locked the black case in his study.
He placed the SUV inside the garage and disconnected nothing.
He said we would deal with passwords, insurance, banks, and lenders in the morning.
Mom immediately said, “We should go home.”
Grandpa looked at Ava.
“You should not drive.”
Ava’s eyes dropped.
“I know.”
Mom reached for her purse.
“I’ll drive.”
Grandpa shook his head.
“Not until we know whether your accounts or phone have been compromised.”
Mom stared at him.
“What does that have to do with driving?”
“Nothing.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I’m tired.”
It was the first time he had looked old all night.
Not frail.
Just tired.
I felt guilty for noticing.
I also felt angry at him for scaring me with it.
He caught my expression.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That usually means something.”
I almost smiled.
“Your rules.”
“What rules?”
“People saying nothing when they mean something.”
He gave me the faintest smile.
Then it disappeared.
“We’ll sleep here.”
Mom opened her mouth.
He raised one hand.
“I have three guest rooms.”
Ava looked toward me.
I knew what she was wondering.
Whether she would have to share one with me.
“I’ll take the downstairs room,” I said.
She nodded too quickly.
That hurt more than I expected.
An hour later, I lay awake in a bed that smelled faintly of cedar and laundry detergent.
My phone sat on the nightstand.
I had frozen my credit.
Changed my email password.
Changed my bank password.
Changed the vehicle account again.
I had called my bank and flagged possible identity misuse.
Every step made me feel briefly safer.
Then another thought would arrive.
What had Mason seen?
What had Ava told him?
What information was already somewhere I could not reach?
I turned onto my side.
Through the wall, I heard plumbing groan.
A door opened.
Soft footsteps crossed the hallway.
Then a knock came at my door.
I sat up.
“Who is it?”
“Ava.”
I almost told her to go away.
Instead, I opened the door.
She stood there in borrowed pajamas.
Grandpa kept old clothes for guests in one of the closets.
The shirt she wore had a faded college logo across the chest.
Without makeup and with her hair tied back, she looked sixteen.
That annoyed me.
She held her phone in both hands.
“What?”
She looked down the hallway.
“Can I show you something?”
I stepped aside.
She came in but did not sit.
She opened a photo album on her phone.
“There are screenshots I forgot about.”
I crossed my arms.
“Of Mason?”
She nodded.
“Messages.”
“Why didn’t you show the deputy?”
“I didn’t remember they were here.”
I looked at her.
She winced.
“I swear.”
“Okay.”
She handed me the phone.
The first screenshot showed Mason telling her that family resources were still resources.
The next showed him telling her not to “overcomplicate permission.”
Another showed a conversation about Mom’s income.
Then one about the SUV.
Mason had written, Your sister won’t use something like that efficiently anyway.
I stared at the sentence.
Ava whispered, “Keep scrolling.”
The next screenshot made my stomach tighten.
Mason had asked whether Grandpa owned other vehicles.
Then property.
Then whether he still managed his own investments.
I looked at Ava.
“Why was he asking about Grandpa?”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought he was making conversation.”
I scrolled again.
There was one final screenshot.
It was from three weeks earlier.
Mason had written, Once Amelia’s car is accessible, the rest gets easier.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Ava’s voice shook.
“I thought he meant transportation.”
I looked at my sister.
For the first time since this started, I believed she was telling me the complete truth.
She had taken my car because she wanted it.
She had lied because lying was easier than admitting she felt entitled to it.
She had let Mason into our lives because he made her feel important.
But whatever he had been planning had started long before the scratch on the passenger door.
I handed the phone back.
“We wake Grandpa.”
Ava nodded.
Neither of us moved for a second.
Then she whispered, “Amelia.”
“What?”
“If I hadn’t taken your SUV, none of this would have happened.”
I looked at her.
“That’s not true.”
She blinked.
“You taking it was wrong.”
I opened the door.
“But he was already looking for a way in.”
Ava stared at me.
I stepped into the hallway.
“And now we find out how far he got.”
Grandpa was awake before we reached his bedroom.
His door opened as Ava lifted her hand to knock.
He stood there in a white undershirt and pajama pants, glasses already on, as if he had expected the night to continue.
“What happened?”
Ava handed him her phone.
He read the screenshots without speaking.
May you like
When he reached the message about my car making the rest easier, his face emptied of expression.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
