Chương 7
“Lisa?”
“Hi.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Another breath.
“What did she do?”
I sat on the edge of the bed.
“She hit me with the baton.”
“Ryan said that.”
I closed my eyes.
“What else did Ryan say?”
“That you called the police.”
“He left out the order of events?”
“Lisa.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
She was right.
I pressed two fingers against my forehead.
“What did Evelyn tell you?”
“That you got aggressive about money and came at her.”
“I didn’t.”
“She said you grabbed her arm.”
“I didn’t touch her.”
“She said Ryan saw it.”
My eyes opened.
Naomi was watching me.
“What exactly did Ryan tell you?” I asked.
Megan went silent.
Then she said, “He said things got out of control.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I don’t want to be in the middle.”
“You already are.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“I know, okay?”
I waited.
Finally she whispered, “He said he didn’t see who started it.”
“Say that again.”
Megan sniffed.
“Ryan said he didn’t see who started it.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“He was sitting six feet away.”
“I know.”
“He watched your mother pick up the baton.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“I’m not asking you to believe me because I’m family.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, you said you don’t want to be in the middle.”
Megan let out a shaky breath.
“I have two kids asleep upstairs and Mom called me from jail saying her daughter-in-law is trying to destroy her life.”
I closed my eyes.
“She hit me in the face.”
“I know.”
“No, Megan, I don’t think you do.”
The words came harder than I intended.
Naomi looked up from the floor.
I turned away from her.
“I have fractures around my eye.”
Megan stopped breathing for a second.
When she spoke again, the defensiveness had disappeared.
“What?”
“The hospital did a CT scan.”
“Oh my God.”
“She didn’t slap me.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Ryan knew.”
Silence.
A long one.
Then Megan said, “He told me you were okay.”
Something cold moved through me.
“When?”
“Maybe twenty minutes after Mom called.”
That meant Ryan had spoken to Megan while I was still in the emergency department.
He had not known my diagnosis yet.
But he had known I had left in an ambulance.
“What exactly did he say?”
“That you were upset, but you were okay.”
I stared at the wall.
Naomi stood slowly.
“What is it?” she whispered.
I held up one finger.
Megan continued.
“He said everybody needed to calm down before this turned into something worse.”
I almost laughed.
It already had.
“Did he tell you Mom was arrested?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“He said the police had to follow procedure because you called.”
Of course.
Not because Evelyn hit me.
Because I called.
I looked down at the swelling reflected faintly in the black laptop screen.
“Megan, I need you to do something.”
She tensed immediately.
“What?”
“Don’t delete any messages from Ryan or your mother.”
“Why?”
“Because if people start changing their stories, those messages may matter.”
“I’m not giving you my phone.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“You’re doing the work thing.”
“What work thing?”
“The investigator voice.”
That stung because she was right.
I had slipped into the tone I used with frightened employees, the one designed to slow down conversation and lock facts into place.
“I’m sorry.”
She sighed.
“I don’t know who to believe.”
“You don’t have to decide tonight.”
“Mom says you’ve hated her for years.”
“I haven’t.”
“She says you resented helping her.”
“I resented being expected to keep paying her.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
There was another pause.
Then Megan said, “How much?”
I hesitated.
“Thirty-six thousand that I knowingly transferred in six months.”
She made a small sound.
“And more I didn’t know about.”
“How much more?”
“I’m still figuring that out.”
“My God.”
“You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“That she was getting money from us.”
“I knew you helped sometimes.”
“Six thousand a month?”
“No.”
Her answer came too quickly to be rehearsed.
I believed her.
Then she said something that shifted the room around me.
“She told me Ryan was helping her from his disability payments.”
I sat straighter.
“What?”
“A few months ago.”
“What did she say?”
“That she was embarrassed and Ryan was helping until she got things sorted out.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say what the problem was?”
“She said something about a home equity loan.”
I frowned.
“You said her house is paid off.”
“It was.”
My mouth went dry.
“Was?”
Megan hesitated.
“Mom borrowed against it last year.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she asked me to co-sign something.”
“For what?”
“I said no before she explained everything.”
That sounded like Megan.
She had always been better at refusing Evelyn than Ryan was, although she usually paid for it with months of passive-aggressive phone calls.
“What did she need the money for?”
“She said repairs.”
“How much repair?”
“I don’t know.”
“Megan.”
“I really don’t.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I have my own mortgage, Lisa.”
“I’m not accusing you.”
“It sounds like you are.”
“I’m trying to understand.”
“Well, stop trying to understand me like I’m part of a breach report.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Fair.”
She breathed out.
Then, more quietly, she said, “There was one other thing.”
Naomi moved closer.
“What?”
“Mom asked me last month whether you and Ryan had separate retirement accounts.”
Every muscle in my back tightened.
“What did you tell her?”
“That I had no idea and it was none of my business.”
“Did she say why she was asking?”
“She said she was helping Ryan plan.”
“Plan what?”
“I don’t know.”
I stared toward the guest-room doorway.
Naomi was watching my face carefully now.
“Did she mention divorce?”
The question hurt as soon as it left my mouth.
Megan went silent.
That silence was enough.
“Megan.”
May you like
“She didn’t use that word.”
“What did she say?”
