Chương 3
“I didn’t give it.”
The room seemed smaller.
Daniel looked at the hospital bracelets.
“It was taken.”
Claire sat down again without deciding to.
For several seconds she could hear nothing but the rain.
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the door.
Claire already knew.
She closed her eyes.
“Margaret.”
“And Richard.”
Claire opened them.
“And my mother?”
Daniel rubbed his thumb against his finger again.
“She used the money.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“She knew where it came from.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
“Did she ask them to take it?”
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation became the most important thing in the room.
“I don’t know exactly how the first conversation happened.”
“You said you knew the secret.”
“I know what happened to the money.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
“Then why did Mom transfer this house to you?”
Daniel leaned back.
“Because she spent fourteen years trying to repay it.”
Claire looked down at the document.
The black letters swam again.
Her hand moved to the hospital bracelet.
She hated herself for touching it.
Daniel stood.
“Tomorrow, Avery can show you the accounting.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Because you were fifteen.”
“I’m twenty-nine.”
“Yes.”
“That’s fourteen years you had available.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He looked at her.
For the first time that night, Daniel seemed angry.
Not loud.
Not theatrical.
Just tired enough to stop hiding it.
“Tell you what, Claire? That your mother stole money to keep you alive? That my parents helped her do it? That every time you thanked me for driving you to Stanford for follow-ups I was supposed to say, by the way, technically I paid for part of this?”
Claire flinched.
Daniel looked away immediately.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
He pressed his lips together.
“No, that was fair.”
“It wasn’t.”
“It was true.”
“Those aren’t the same thing.”
Claire stared at the little blue bracelet.
“I need you to leave.”
Daniel went to the door.
Before he opened it, Claire said, “Did you hate her?”
He stayed still.
“My mother.”
Daniel rested his hand on the brass knob.
“Sometimes.”
Claire nodded.
“And me?”
A longer silence.
“Sometimes.”
He left.
Claire sat alone for nearly an hour.
When she finally came downstairs, the storm had weakened.
Richard was in the kitchen eating cold chicken directly from a storage container.
He looked up as Claire entered.
A fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
Claire stared at him.
Richard put the fork down.
“I deserved that look.”
“You stole Daniel’s trust.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“We borrowed from it.”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
“No. That’s fair. We took it.”
“Did Mom ask you to?”
Richard looked toward the hallway.
Margaret was not there.
“She asked for help.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
Claire folded her arms.
Richard opened the refrigerator, looked inside, closed it without taking anything.
“Your mother was thirty-nine,” he said. “You had relapsed. The insurer had denied part of the proposed treatment plan. There were appeals. There were specialists. There were options out of state. Every conversation involved another number none of us could make sense of.”
Claire said nothing.
Richard pulled out a chair but did not sit.
“The vineyard had been refinanced twice. Your grandfather’s estate was tied up. Margaret had authority over certain family trusts. I had authority over others. Daniel’s was the only account with enough liquidity.”
“Did he know?”
“No.”
“So you forged his approval?”
“There was no approval required from him for certain distributions.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
His voice stayed level.
That irritated Claire more than excuses might have.
“How did you justify it?”
Richard gave her a tired look.
“We told ourselves we would replace it in ninety days.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“A land sale collapsed. Then we were short on a winery note. Then the next year was bad. Then it became easier to promise repayment than make it.”
Claire stared at him.
“You used his money for the winery too?”
Richard shook his head quickly.
“No. The distribution itself went to your treatment and related expenses. But the money we expected to use to replace it had to go elsewhere.”
“You’re saying that like money is weather.”
“I’m trying not to lie to you.”
“That would be a nice family experiment.”
Richard looked at her for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
“Yes.”
The answer took some of the fight out of her.
She sat at the table.
Richard sat opposite.
The refrigerator motor clicked on.
Somewhere in the mudroom, the dog door rattled in the wind, though there had not been a dog in the house since Eleanor’s old retriever died two years ago.
Claire looked at Richard’s hands.
He had always been the practical one.
At family dinners, Margaret made decisions and Richard made those decisions appear inevitable.
“Did Daniel find out?”
“At twenty-four.”
“How?”
“An accounting statement.”
“What did he do?”
Richard looked toward the counter.
“He drove here. Walked into my office. Put the statement on the desk.”
“And?”
“And asked if it was true.”
“That’s all?”
“At first.”
Claire waited.
Richard gave a quiet, humorless laugh.
“I had never seen him that angry.”
“What did he say?”
“Not much. Daniel doesn’t waste words when he’s angry.”
“That’s convenient.”
“For him, maybe.”
Richard picked up the fork again, then put it down.
“He asked whether you knew.”
Claire felt something shift inside her.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.”
“And that mattered to him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Richard looked at her as if the question surprised him.
“Because you were his cousin.”
Claire looked away.
“He made us promise not to tell you,” Richard said.
Claire turned back.
“I thought Mom did.”
“Both, eventually.”
“Why would Daniel protect us?”
Richard’s expression hardened slightly.
“He wasn’t protecting us.”
Claire understood.
“He was protecting me.”
“I think he believed he was.”
“That’s worse.”
“Maybe.”
May you like
“He let me live around him for ten years without knowing.”
“Would you have preferred to know at nineteen?”
