Chương 11
Melissa was on her feet immediately.
“Sit down.”
“I need water.”
“I’ll get it.”
“No.”
“Emily, stop being ridiculous.”
“I can walk to my own kitchen.”
She froze.
The word own hung there again.
I regretted using it like a weapon.
I also meant it.
We walked back to the kitchen together.
I poured water.
Melissa opened the refrigerator without asking and then stopped herself.
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
She closed it.
“There’s nothing in there anyway.”
“There is yogurt.”
“And mustard.”
“I like mustard.”
She looked at me.
“That is the saddest refrigerator I’ve ever seen.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
The laugh hurt.
I grabbed my abdomen.
Melissa immediately pulled out a stool.
“Sit.”
This time I did.
She filled a glass and put it beside me.
For thirty seconds, we were simply sisters in a kitchen again.
Then the front desk called through the building intercom.
I answered.
Daniel’s voice came through.
“Emily, Mr. Hayes is back.”
I glanced at Melissa.
Her face drained.
“Does he have the kids?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“He says they’re with Patricia.”
Melissa stood so quickly the stool scraped across the floor.
“What?”
Daniel continued.
“He asked whether you and Melissa could come downstairs.”
I looked at her.
She was already reaching for her phone.
There were six missed calls.
Three from Jason.
Three from Mom.
Melissa opened the latest text from Jason.
Her hand began to shake.
“What does it say?”
She turned the screen toward me.
There were only nine words.
I called the bank, and we need to talk.
I read the message twice, though there was nothing complicated about it.
Melissa did not move.
“What bank?”
She looked at me.
“Our bank.”
“What did he ask them?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have joint accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Credit cards?”
“Some.”
“Some?”
Her face tightened.
“Not all.”
I got off the stool carefully.
“We should go downstairs.”
“I need a minute.”
“You said that about the lobby.”
“I know.”
“And about Mom.”
“I know.”
“And about Jason.”
“I know.”
She pressed both palms against the kitchen counter.
“I know.”
The last word came out thin.
I waited while she stared down at the quartz.
Then she straightened and picked up her phone.
“Okay.”
We rode the elevator down without speaking.
This time Melissa watched the floor numbers.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
When the doors opened, Jason was standing near the windows with his phone in his hand.
He looked different.
Not angrier.
Emptier.
Daniel was at the desk speaking quietly with the concierge.
No one else seemed to be paying attention.
Jason looked at me first.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For dragging this into your building.”
“You didn’t start it here.”
He nodded.
Then he looked at Melissa.
She stopped several feet away from him.
“What did the bank say?”
Jason held up his phone.
“I called because I wanted to know exactly what we had.”
Melissa’s shoulders tightened.
“We have twenty-eight hundred.”
“No.”
Her face changed.
Jason continued.
“We have six hundred and twelve dollars in checking.”
Melissa said nothing.
“Savings has ninety-four.”
“That’s not right.”
“I thought so too.”
“Did you look at the right account?”
“Yes.”
“There should be twenty-eight hundred.”
“There isn’t.”
She took out her phone and opened the banking app.
Her thumb moved quickly.
Then stopped.
I watched the blood leave her face.
Jason gave a short, bitter laugh.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“You actually didn’t know.”
Melissa stared at the screen.
“What happened?”
“That’s what I asked them.”
She looked up.
“And?”
“There was an automatic payment yesterday.”
“For what?”
“A card.”
Melissa blinked.
“Which card?”
“The one ending in forty-eight eleven.”
Her lips parted.
“That can’t be right.”
“How much?”
Jason asked the question quietly.
Melissa swallowed.
“How much?”
“Two thousand one hundred and ninety-three dollars.”
She closed her eyes.
“I forgot.”
Jason turned away.
“You forgot.”
“I set it up last month.”
“You forgot a two-thousand-dollar payment.”
“I was trying to catch up.”
“With what money?”
“I thought we had more.”
“That’s the entire problem.”
A man in running clothes crossed the lobby carrying a golden retriever’s leash.
The dog slowed near Melissa and sniffed her shoe.
The owner apologized and tugged it along.
Nobody in our family spoke until the elevator doors closed behind them.
Then Jason said, “There’s more.”
Melissa looked at him.
“What?”
“I asked about transfers.”
Her face went still.
“What transfers?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He unlocked his phone and held it out.
She did not take it.
“I pulled six months.”
“Jason.”
“Take it.”
She finally did.
Her eyes moved over the screen.
I could not see what he was showing her.
Then she sat in the chair behind her without looking.
Jason’s voice stayed flat.
“There are transfers to an account I don’t recognize.”
Melissa said nothing.
“Three hundred here.”
“Five hundred there.”
“Seven fifty.”
“Two hundred.”
“Four hundred.”
“Almost every month.”
I looked at her.
“What account?”
Jason answered.
“A checking account at another bank.”
Melissa’s voice was barely audible.
“It’s mine.”
He nodded once.
“I figured that out.”
“You knew I had an old account.”
“I knew you had one from before we were married.”
“I never closed it.”
“I can see that.”
“It’s not secret.”
“Then why are you moving money into it without telling me?”
Melissa looked around the lobby.
“Can we go somewhere else?”
Jason shook his head.
“No.”
She stared at him.
“No?”
“I’m not getting back into the van and pretending everything is normal in front of the kids.”
“They’re with Mom.”
“I know.”
“Then let’s go somewhere private.”
He looked toward me.
I expected him to agree.
Instead he said, “I don’t trust private right now.”
Melissa flinched.
That was the first thing he had said that visibly hurt her.
She put his phone on the chair beside her.
“The account has maybe fifteen hundred dollars.”
Jason stared at her.
“So there is money.”
May you like
“Not enough.”
“That isn’t the point.”
