Chương 5
“No.”
The word sat there.
Small.
Ugly.
Thomas paced toward the kitchen window.
Claire watched him put both hands on the counter.
His shoulders rose once.
Then again.
Paul spoke behind him.
“There are missed-payment notices.”
Thomas turned.
“What?”
“I found three.”
The quiet in the kitchen changed.
Claire looked at Paul.
“What happens if the loan is in Thomas’s name?”
Paul swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
“Could it affect our house?”
“I don’t know.”
“Our credit?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could someone come after him for the debt?”
Paul’s eyes dropped.
“I don’t know.”
Claire pushed back her chair.
“For a man who brought a folder called everything, you know remarkably little.”
Paul accepted that without protest.
Thomas came back to the table and picked up the loan agreement.
His face had become very calm.
Too calm.
Claire had seen that expression only once before, when Léa was an infant and stopped breathing properly during a fever.
Thomas had packed the hospital bag, called emergency services, and spoken in complete sentences while Claire shook so badly she could not put on shoes.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Thomas photographed every page.
Then he opened a new email.
“I’m sending this to myself.”
Paul watched him.
“Why?”
“So nobody can make it disappear.”
Paul’s face tightened.
Thomas looked at his father.
“Did Mom know you were bringing these?”
“No.”
“Does she have access to the filing cabinet?”
“Yes.”
Thomas gathered the papers.
“Then these stay here.”
Paul nodded.
His phone began ringing.
Marie.
All three of them looked at the screen.
Paul silenced it.
It rang again.
He silenced it again.
Then a message appeared.
Claire could not read the whole thing from where she sat.
She did not need to.
Paul’s face told her enough.
Thomas held out his hand.
“Show me.”
Paul hesitated.
Thomas did not move.
Finally, Paul passed him the phone.
Thomas read the message.
His mouth hardened.
Claire stood beside him.
Marie had written, If you give him those documents, I will make sure he knows what you did too.
Thomas looked at his father.
Paul went completely still.
“What did you do?” Thomas asked.
Paul looked at the phone in Thomas’s hand as though it belonged to someone else.
His lips parted, but no answer came.
Thomas waited.
Claire could see the muscles working along his jaw.
“Dad.”
Paul lowered himself into the chair.
“It wasn’t the loan.”
Thomas’s voice stayed flat.
“What wasn’t?”
“What she’s talking about.”
“Then tell me what she’s talking about.”
Paul rubbed both palms over his knees.
“Years ago, when the business was in trouble, I moved money.”
Thomas stared at him.
“From where?”
“Company accounts.”
Claire felt the room narrow again.
Paul kept his eyes on the floor.
“It was temporary.”
Thomas let out a quiet breath through his nose.
“That sentence never ends well.”
“I intended to put it back.”
“How much?”
“About seventy thousand.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Claire said nothing.
Paul continued before either of them could.
“The business had lost two major clients within six months.”
He swallowed.
“I had payroll due, suppliers threatening to stop deliveries, and your mother had just learned the mortgage was behind.”
Thomas looked at him.
“So you stole from your own company.”
Paul flinched.
“Yes.”
“Who else owned it?”
“A partner.”
“Did he know?”
“No.”
“Did he ever find out?”
Paul hesitated.
“No.”
Thomas gave a short laugh without amusement.
“So that is what Mom has on you.”
Paul looked up.
“She helped me cover it.”
Claire frowned.
“How?”
“She sold some investments from her father’s estate.”
Thomas’s head came up.
“Grandpa’s estate?”
Paul nodded.
“She gave me enough to put most of it back before the audit.”
Thomas stared at him for several seconds.
Then something shifted in his expression.
“The trust.”
Paul went still.
Thomas stepped closer.
“What?”
Paul looked away.
Thomas’s voice sharpened.
“The trust came from Grandpa.”
“Yes.”
“And Mom had access to estate documents before everything was distributed.”
Paul said nothing.
Claire watched Thomas understand a possibility he did not want.
“Did she use money that was supposed to be mine?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I don’t.”
Thomas slapped one palm against the table.
The sound was not especially loud, but Paul jerked anyway.
“You were there.”
“I was drowning.”
“That does not make you blind.”
Paul’s face hardened for the first time.
“No, it makes me ashamed.”
Thomas stopped.
Paul stood.
“I knew she covered the missing money.”
His voice shook now, though not from fear.
“I knew she had access to her father’s estate.”
He pointed toward the papers on the table.
“I did not know she was going to spend the next six years using you.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You benefited from it.”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
That seemed to disarm Thomas more than another excuse would have.
Paul rubbed his forehead.
“I benefited from your money.”
He nodded toward Claire.
“And I sat there tonight while your wife was hit.”
His mouth tightened.
“I am not asking to be mistaken for innocent.”
Claire looked at him carefully.
There was something almost relieving in hearing a guilty person refuse a cleaner version of himself.
Thomas sat down.
The fight went out of his posture for a moment.
“What did Mom tell you I was paying?”
Paul swallowed.
“That you were helping with medical costs.”
“For six years?”
“She made it sound occasional.”
Thomas looked at Claire.
Claire crossed her arms.
“So either she hid the transfers from you or you made sure not to ask enough questions.”
Paul nodded once.
“The second one.”
Thomas’s phone buzzed with another message.
This time it was Chloé.
He looked at the screen but did not open it.
Claire saw the preview.
Dad is lying to you.
Thomas placed the phone face down.
Paul gave a bitter little smile.
“She’s awake, then.”
“What does Chloé know?” Claire asked.
Paul looked toward her.
May you like
“I don’t know exactly.”
Claire almost laughed.
