Chương 7
“Where’s Sarah?”
“Sleeping.”
“Dad?”
“Garage.”
Of course.
Richard repaired things when conversations became unbearable.
Emily heard the metallic clank of tools through the mudroom door.
“What’s broken?”
“The automatic opener.”
“Was it broken yesterday?”
“No.”
Emily looked at her mother.
Diane shrugged.
“He found something.”
They drank coffee without speaking.
At seven fifteen, Sarah came downstairs.
She had changed into sweatpants and an oversized college sweatshirt. Without makeup, she looked younger than twenty-two.
She opened the refrigerator.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Emily said, “Food didn’t appear in the last four seconds.”
Sarah looked at her.
“I’m checking.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
She shut the door and sat across from Emily.
Diane immediately found a reason to wipe the counter on the other side of the kitchen.
Sarah picked at a loose thread on her sleeve.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily said nothing.
Sarah looked up.
“I said I’m sorry.”
“I heard you.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“I don’t know. Say something.”
Emily took another sip of coffee.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You could say you forgive me.”
Diane stopped wiping the counter.
Emily almost admired Sarah’s nerve.
“No.”
Sarah’s face reddened.
“Fine.”
“You don’t even want forgiveness.”
“What does that mean?”
“You want the conversation over.”
“That’s what forgiveness does.”
“No.”
Sarah rolled her eyes.
“Okay, Emily.”
“There. That.”
“What?”
“That thing you do when someone won’t give you what you want. Like they’re being unreasonable for making you uncomfortable.”
Sarah pushed away from the table.
“I came down here to apologize.”
“You came down here to get forgiven before breakfast.”
“I knew you’d do this.”
“Do what?”
“Make it into some huge moral thing.”
“You framed me for theft.”
“I did not frame you for theft.”
Emily stared at her.
Sarah stood.
“I put the bracelet in your bag.”
“Yes.”
“I was going to take it back.”
“When?”
“Later.”
“After Linda found it?”
“I didn’t tell Linda to accuse you.”
“You told her to search my bag.”
“I thought Dad would just tell you to leave.”
Emily went still.
Diane turned.
“What?”
Sarah realized too late what she had said.
She stared at the table.
Emily asked, “You thought Dad would tell me to leave.”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“That was the point?”
“I didn’t think he’d threaten the police.”
“The point was to get me out of the house.”
“Just for the night.”
“Why?”
Sarah did not answer.
Diane crossed the kitchen.
“Sarah.”
“Because of the lawyer.”
The garage noise stopped.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Richard had heard.
He entered through the mudroom carrying a screwdriver.
“What about the lawyer?”
Sarah’s shoulders tightened.
Emily felt cold.
“You knew Mr. Keller was coming.”
Sarah looked at her father.
“I knew somebody from Grandma’s lawyer’s office had called.”
“How?”
“I heard Mom talking about it.”
Diane shook her head.
“I never said anything about Emily.”
“No, but Aunt Linda did.”
Linda.
Emily closed her eyes.
“What did Linda know?”
Sarah rubbed her face.
“She said Grandma changed the trust.”
Richard sat slowly.
“How would Linda know that?”
“She didn’t know. She guessed.”
“Why?”
“Because Grandma told her something before she died.”
Diane stared.
“What?”
Sarah looked trapped now.
“She said Grandma told her Richard shouldn’t count on the house.”
No one spoke.
Richard’s face hardened.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long have you known?”
“A few weeks.”
“You knew my mother might have left the house to Emily.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You suspected.”
Sarah shouted, “Yes!”
The word filled the kitchen.
She lowered her voice immediately.
“Yes. I suspected.”
Emily set down her mug.
“And you wanted me gone before Keller arrived.”
“I wanted Dad to talk to him without you here.”
“Why?”
“Because once you knew, that was it.”
“What was it?”
“You’d take it.”
Emily almost laughed.
“Take what Grandma gave me?”
Sarah looked furious now.
“This is our home.”
“It was Grandma’s home.”
“We grew up here.”
“So did I.”
“You left.”
The sentence landed harder than Emily expected.
Sarah saw it.
She continued anyway.
“You moved out at nineteen. You got your apartment. Your job. You barely come over unless Mom begs you. I stayed here.”
“You were seventeen when I moved out.”
“I stayed.”
“You say that like I abandoned a sinking ship.”
“You always get to leave.”
Emily stared at her sister.
There it was.
Something beneath the bracelet.
Something uglier and older.
Sarah wiped her face.
“When Dad got bad about the business, you left. When Grandma got sick, you visited and then you went home. When Mom and Dad fought, you turned your phone off. I was here.”
“I was working.”
“I know.”
“I paid my own rent.”
“I know.”
“I wasn’t on vacation.”
“I know!”
Richard said, “Sarah.”
She ignored him.
“You got to be the good granddaughter because you showed up once a week with soup and listened to Grandma complain. I was here when Dad was losing his mind about money. I was here when Mom cried in the laundry room. I was here when Grandma called him selfish and he didn’t talk to her for a month.”
Emily’s anger shifted.
Not gone.
Changed.
Sarah looked exhausted.
“I thought if you weren’t here when the lawyer came, Dad could handle it. Maybe it was paperwork. Maybe it wasn’t the house. Maybe he could convince them Grandma wasn’t in her right mind. I don’t know.”
Richard slammed the screwdriver onto the table.
“You thought I would challenge your grandmother’s competency?”
Sarah flinched.
“You said she wasn’t thinking clearly near the end.”
Richard’s mouth opened.
No words came.
Emily looked at him.
He looked ashamed.
Sarah continued.
“You said Emily was always getting into her head.”
“I was angry.”
“You said it.”
“That does not mean—”
“That’s what this family does!” Sarah shouted. “Everybody says things and then later decides they meant something else.”
Nobody answered.
Because she was right.
Sarah started crying again.
“I didn’t think Noah’s phone was recording.”
May you like
Emily looked at her.
“Would that have changed whether you did it?”
