Chương 8
A pause followed.
“No, my husband is sitting beside me.”
Rogelio leaned toward the phone.
“Tell them I need to speak.”
Teresa raised one hand without looking at him.
He stopped.
The representative asked another question.
Teresa glanced at Mariana.
“What was the amount?”
“Sixty-two thousand even.”
Teresa repeated it.
The kitchen clock ticked loudly enough to irritate me.
I had spent my entire childhood in that room.
Birthday cakes had cooled on the counter.
Homework had been spread across the same table.
My father had once taught me how to calculate sales tax there using a pencil with a chewed eraser.
Now we were discussing forged signatures and missing money beneath a ceramic sign that said BLESS THIS MESS.
The representative transferred Teresa to the fraud department.
That took eleven minutes.
Nobody spoke during them.
Ernesto opened the refrigerator once, stared inside, then closed it without taking anything.
My father watched him.
“Why did you let her use your account?”
Ernesto leaned against the counter.
“She said her bank was holding deposits because of some divorce issue.”
“And you believed that?”
“You believed she loved you.”
My father stood so fast the chair legs scraped the floor.
“Rogelio,” Teresa said.
He sat again.
Ernesto looked almost disappointed.
The fraud specialist finally came on the line.
Teresa answered more questions.
This time the questions were more specific.
Had she shared passwords?
Had she given anyone permission to access the account?
Did she recognize the receiving institution?
Was the device used for the wire familiar?
Mariana quietly wrote details on the back of an unopened wedding thank-you card.
When Teresa finished, the specialist told her the bank would place restrictions on outgoing transfers and open a fraud investigation.
The completed wire could not simply be reversed.
They would attempt a recall through the receiving bank.
Nothing was guaranteed.
My father rubbed both hands down his face.
Teresa listened carefully.
“Yes,” she said.
“I understand.”
The specialist asked whether any other transactions might be unauthorized.
Teresa looked at Mariana.
Mariana turned the laptop around.
The eleven transfers to CR Property Services remained on the screen.
Teresa read the dates aloud one by one.
My father stared at the table.
When she finished, the representative asked whether law enforcement had been contacted.
“No.”
My father looked up.
Teresa did not.
The representative explained that the bank could investigate account activity but could not determine whether criminal conduct had occurred inside the family or company.
If Teresa believed signatures had been forged or money stolen, she should consider making a police report.
My father whispered, “Don’t.”
Teresa ended the call.
The silence afterward was worse than anything before it.
She placed the phone beside the earring.
“Give me my keys.”
Rogelio looked confused.
“What?”
“My car keys.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m leaving.”
“This is your house.”
“I know.”
“Then I’ll leave.”
“I don’t want you deciding that either.”
Her voice remained calm.
She turned to me.
“Daniel, take me somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don’t care.”
My father stood.
“Teresa, we need to talk.”
“We have been married thirty-six years.”
She looked at him.
“You have had plenty of opportunities.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“No.”
For the first time, her voice trembled.
“No, it isn’t.”
She went upstairs.
Rogelio started after her.
I stepped in front of him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“That’s my wife.”
“She told you to stay away.”
He stared at me.
His eyes were bloodshot.
“You think you’re protecting her?”
“I’m listening to her.”
Something passed across his face.
Maybe shame.
Maybe fury.
Then it disappeared.
Mariana shut the laptop.
“I’m taking copies of these records.”
My father turned.
“No.”
“They concern Daniel.”
“They concern my company.”
“They concern forged documents and missing funds.”
“You don’t work for me.”
“That’s becoming a theme.”
Despite everything, Ernesto made a choking sound that might have been a laugh.
Rogelio glared at him.
“Get out.”
Ernesto nodded.
“Gladly.”
He reached the door, then stopped.
“The cashier’s check.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed toward the driveway.
“It’s still in my truck.”
“How much?” Mariana asked.
“Thirty-five hundred.”
“Get it.”
Ernesto went outside.
My father sat down again.
The anger seemed to drain out of him all at once.
He looked smaller in that chair.
I hated noticing.
Teresa returned carrying a canvas overnight bag.
She had changed into sneakers.
“I need my medication.”
“I put the pill organizer in your side pocket,” Mariana said.
My mother stopped.
“When?”
“While you were upstairs.”
Teresa looked at her for several seconds.
“Thank you.”
Mariana nodded.
It was the first gentle thing that had happened between them.
I carried Mom’s bag to my car.
She got into the passenger seat.
Before I closed the door, she looked back toward the house.
My father was standing inside the kitchen window.
She looked away first.
I drove without asking where we were going.
At the end of the road, Teresa said, “Not your apartment.”
“Why?”
“You just got married.”
I almost laughed.
She heard it anyway.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel.”
“I don’t think our apartment has magical newlywed properties anymore.”
She looked at me.
“What happened?”
I kept my eyes on the road.
“Mariana knew about the forged loan before the wedding.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
Teresa leaned her head back against the seat.
“I’m tired of being the last person informed about my own family.”
I did not answer.
We passed a gas station.
A man in pajama pants was vacuuming the back seat of a minivan.
Two teenagers stood outside the convenience store arguing over a lottery ticket.
The world remained offensively normal.
“I can get you a hotel.”
My mother shook her head.
“Too expensive.”
“Mom.”
“I am not paying two hundred dollars to sleep fifteen miles from my own bed.”
“Then where?”
She considered.
“Your Aunt Celia.”
“That’s an hour away.”
“She has a guest room.”
“Does she know anything?”
“No.”
“She will in about ninety seconds after you arrive.”
“That’s Celia’s personality defect.”
May you like
Despite herself, Mom smiled.
It lasted perhaps two seconds.
