Chương 6
“Dad, Claire gave Mom money.”
Mara watched Daniel listen.
“No, two thousand.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
Richard spoke.
Daniel interrupted.
“No, I’m not blaming Claire.”
Another pause.
“Dad, what’s the apartment address?”
Mara closed her eyes.
Richard apparently refused.
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“I’m your son.”
Richard said something.
Daniel leaned away from the phone.
“That’s not the point.”
Mara opened her eyes.
Daniel listened.
Then his shoulders lowered.
“Okay.”
He ended the call.
“He won’t tell me.”
“Good.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Good?”
“He’s trying to stop you from becoming another problem he has to manage tonight.”
“That’s not what he said.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel’s expression shifted.
“He said I’ve done enough.”
Mara went still.
Daniel gave a small, humorless laugh.
“There you go.”
“He’s angry.”
“He should be.”
“At me?”
Mara looked at him.
Daniel nodded before she answered.
“Right.”
He walked to the living room.
Mara followed more slowly.
He sat on the edge of the couch beneath their wedding photograph.
The picture had been taken at a courthouse because Evelyn disapproved of the small ceremony Mara wanted and Richard refused to pay for the ballroom Evelyn selected.
Mara had worn a cream silk dress from a consignment store.
Daniel had laughed through half the vows because the clerk kept mispronouncing their last name.
Mara had loved that laugh.
She wondered when she had last heard it without his mother somewhere in the background of their lives.
Daniel looked up at the photograph too.
“I thought I was keeping the peace.”
Mara leaned against the wall.
“I know.”
“I genuinely thought that.”
“I know.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I thought if I didn’t react to every little thing, eventually everyone would calm down.”
Mara said nothing.
“And then I started treating everything like a little thing.”
Her throat tightened.
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s what you’ve been trying to tell me.”
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly.
“I’m sorry.”
Mara looked away.
The words did not make her angry.
That was almost worse.
They simply seemed too small.
Daniel must have seen it.
“I know that doesn’t fix anything.”
“No.”
“I don’t expect it to.”
“Good.”
He looked down.
His phone rang again.
Richard.
Daniel answered immediately.
“Dad.”
Richard’s voice was loud enough that Mara heard one clear sentence.
“She’s back.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
Richard answered.
Daniel’s face changed.
“At the house?”
He listened.
“Is she okay?”
Mara watched him.
“What do you mean she brought someone?”
Daniel’s gaze found Mara’s.
“Who?”
Richard spoke.
Daniel’s jaw clenched.
“What lawyer?”
Mara’s stomach dropped.
Daniel turned on speaker.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“She brought a man named Grant Wilkes.”
Mara said, “That’s a lawyer?”
Richard answered without hesitation.
“Yes.”
Daniel asked, “Why does she have a lawyer?”
Richard gave a bitter laugh.
“Apparently your mother has had one for months.”
Nobody spoke.
Richard continued.
“She says she wants me out of the house.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“What?”
“She says the house is legally hers.”
Mara frowned.
Richard’s breathing sounded uneven through the speaker.
“She brought paperwork.”
Daniel said, “Dad, don’t sign anything.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“No one said you were.”
Richard went quiet.
Then he said, “Daniel, there’s something else.”
Mara felt the familiar tightening in the room despite being miles away from him.
Richard continued.
“The apartment isn’t hers.”
Daniel asked, “Whose is it?”
Richard did not answer immediately.
When he did, his voice had changed.
“Grant Wilkes.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
Daniel’s face drained.
The lawyer was not simply representing Evelyn.
He was the man on the recording.
Richard did not give them time to absorb it.
“He says he is here as her counsel.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“And you’re sure it’s him?”
“I played the recording.”
Mara’s fingers tightened around the damp towel.
Richard continued.
“He didn’t deny it.”
Daniel started pacing.
“What the hell is he doing there?”
“He claims he has a professional obligation to represent her interests.”
Mara said, “And a personal one.”
Richard was quiet.
“Yes.”
The word sounded scraped hollow.
Daniel stopped beside the couch.
“Dad, tell him to leave.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He says Evelyn has authorized him to be here.”
“It’s your house.”
Richard gave a bitter laugh.
“Apparently that is one of several things currently under discussion.”
Mara felt another thread connect.
“The paperwork.”
Richard went silent.
“What does she have?”
“Copies of the deed, financial statements, a postnuptial agreement.”
Daniel frowned.
“You and Mom have a postnup?”
“I signed something eleven years ago after we refinanced.”
Richard’s embarrassment carried even through the speaker.
“I thought it was estate planning.”
Mara glanced at Daniel.
“Was Grant involved then?”
“No.”
Richard paused.
“At least I don’t think so.”
Daniel said, “Get your own lawyer.”
“I already called one.”
That surprised Mara.
Richard had sounded stunned, but he was not helpless.
He had spent forty years running a commercial construction company before retiring.
Shock might slow him.
It had not erased him.
“David Rosen is on his way.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Good.”
Richard’s voice softened.
“I don’t want you here.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Dad.”
“I mean it.”
“She’s my mother.”
“And Mara is your wife.”
Daniel looked at Mara.
Richard continued.
“You need to decide where you are useful.”
The sentence struck Daniel harder than if his father had shouted.
He lowered himself onto the couch.
Mara looked away to give him the privacy of not being watched.
Richard said, “I’ll call after David gets here.”
The line went dead.
Daniel kept the phone against his ear for several seconds.
Then he lowered it.
Mara sat in the chair opposite him.
“Your father’s right.”
Daniel gave her a wounded look.
“I know.”
“You don’t have to like it.”
“I know that too.”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“I keep thinking if I had stopped her in the kitchen, none of this would be happening.”
Mara shook her head.
“This was already happening.”
“The public part wasn’t.”
May you like
“No.”
“She might not have admitted the wallet.”
