Chương 5
“Did you expect him to?”
“No.”
“Did you think he’d be grateful you kept it within the family?”
Sienna looked down.
Claire immediately hated herself for saying it.
Not enough to apologize.
But enough to stop.
“I’m going to the hospital,” Claire said. “You can tell Ethan before I leave, or you can tell him after. But you’re telling him tonight.”
Sienna whispered, “Eleanor gave me money because Ethan was going to lose the business.”
Claire stopped.
“What?”
“It wasn’t mine. Not really.”
Claire turned fully.
“What business?”
“His construction company.”
“Ethan doesn’t own the company.”
“He owns part of a subcontracting firm. Or he did. He invested with two supervisors three years ago.”
Claire frowned.
Ethan had mentioned a small partnership once.
Concrete finishing and specialty interiors.
Claire had assumed it was minor.
“Sienna, what does that have to do with you and Julian?”
“Everything.”
The front door opened.
Ethan entered.
His face looked older than it had an hour earlier.
He removed his work gloves carefully and placed them on the entry table.
Then he said, “Talk.”
Sienna stood.
Ethan pointed toward a chair.
“No. Sit.”
She sat.
Claire remained standing by the dining table.
Ethan looked at her.
“You know?”
“Not what she’s about to say.”
He nodded.
That mattered to him.
Claire could see it.
He wanted one person in the room who had not been living ahead of him.
Sienna folded her hands.
“Your company had cash problems last year.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
“How do you know that?”
“You told me.”
“I told you we had a delayed payment.”
“You told me more than that.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You did after Danny’s wedding. You were drunk.”
Ethan looked away.
Sienna continued.
“You said if the hotel job didn’t pay by January, you’d have to sell your share.”
“That’s not the same as losing the company.”
“I thought you were going to lose everything.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Apparently.”
Sienna took a breath.
“I asked Eleanor for help.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You what?”
“I asked her for a loan.”
“You went to my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew what you’d say.”
“That’s generally why people hide things.”
Claire looked down.
Ethan’s bitterness sounded familiar.
Sienna rubbed her palms against her knees.
“Eleanor said she’d help, but she didn’t want you to know.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“That part sounds like her.”
“She transferred money through different accounts because she said direct payments would create questions.”
Claire said, “Two hundred eighty thousand dollars?”
Sienna shook her head.
“Not all of that was for the business.”
Claire’s skin prickled.
“How much?”
“Eighty.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Eighty thousand?”
“Yes.”
“I never got eighty thousand dollars.”
“No.”
“Then where did it go?”
Sienna looked at the floor.
“I used some to cover the line of credit.”
“How?”
“You had statements in your office.”
Ethan’s face went still.
“My office?”
“I took a picture.”
He stared at her.
Claire could practically hear trust collapsing in separate compartments.
“You accessed my company account?”
“I made a payment through the portal.”
“You had my password?”
“You use the same password for everything.”
He stepped back as if she had touched him.
“Jesus.”
“I was trying to help.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
“Don’t.”
Sienna stopped.
Ethan put both hands on his hips.
“Where did the rest go?”
“Julian.”
Claire looked at her.
Sienna swallowed.
“He said Eleanor was moving money because she didn’t want you to know she was helping.”
Claire said, “That still doesn’t explain the other two hundred thousand.”
“No.”
“What was that?”
Sienna looked toward Ethan.
Then back at Claire.
“Julian’s investment.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Investment in what?”
“Me.”
Ethan made a sound like he had been hit.
Sienna closed her eyes.
“That came out wrong.”
“There’s a correct version?” Ethan asked.
“No.”
Claire sat down at last.
Her legs had begun to ache.
Sienna continued.
“My jewelry company was failing.”
Claire remembered.
The business had launched with a rooftop party, influencer partnerships, a glossy campaign, and designs that Claire privately thought looked like expensive paper clips.
Within eighteen months, the website stopped updating.
Sienna had said she lost interest.
Apparently that was not the whole story.
“I had debts,” Sienna said. “Inventory, returns, a lawsuit from the manufacturer, taxes. I didn’t tell Ethan how bad it was.”
Ethan stared at the wall.
“Of course you didn’t.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Try something new.”
Claire looked at him.
“Ethan.”
He shook his head.
“No. Don’t protect her.”
“I’m not.”
“Then don’t soften it.”
Claire let him have that.
Sienna’s voice dropped.
“Julian helped me.”
“With money,” Claire said.
“At first.”
There it was.
At first.
Two words that turned a financial betrayal into a chronology.
Claire asked, “Did Eleanor know about the affair before or after the money?”
“After.”
“How long after?”
“Maybe three months.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Sienna continued more quickly now, as if speed might reduce the pain.
“She found out because she saw us leaving a hotel. She confronted Julian. Then me.”
“And instead of telling us,” Claire said, “she paid you.”
“No.”
Sienna shook her head hard.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“What was the deal?”
“She said Julian would end it. She said I would stay with Ethan. She said she would help clean up the money problems if we stopped.”
Claire stared at her.
“And did you?”
Sienna’s silence answered.
Ethan laughed once.
Not happily.
“Unbelievable.”
“It stopped for a while.”
“How noble.”
“Ethan.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
“Then?”
Sienna looked down.
“It started again.”
Ethan walked out of the dining room.
Sienna stood.
He turned.
“Do not follow me.”
She sat again.
Claire watched him disappear into the den.
A door closed.
Not slammed.
Just closed.
That restraint felt worse.
Claire looked at Sienna.
“So Eleanor paid you to preserve the marriages.”
“Yes.”
“And Julian?”
“She moved money for him too.”
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“Why?”
“To cover what he’d already given me. He didn’t want it showing up as personal transfers.”
