Chương 13
Linda sat at the table.
“So what happens?”
Emily looked at her.
“With this lawsuit?”
“Yes.”
“He needs a lawyer.”
Robert scoffed.
“I already have one.”
“The same one handling the foreclosure?”
“Yes.”
Emily rubbed her temple.
“You can’t afford two separate fights.”
Robert gave her a hard look.
“Thank you for the financial advice.”
“You asked me here because you wanted financial help.”
“I asked you here because this family is losing its home.”
“No.”
Emily’s voice was quiet.
“You asked me here because you thought guilt was cheaper than a lawyer.”
Lauren looked down.
Linda’s mouth trembled.
Robert stared at Emily for several seconds.
“That’s what you think of me?”
Emily almost said yes.
Then she looked at the man in front of her.
Older.
Tired.
Terrified.
Still manipulative.
Still her father.
“I think you keep converting fear into control.”
Robert flinched as though she had slapped him.
The room went quiet.
Noah descended the last steps.
“What does that mean?”
Everyone looked at him.
Emily sighed.
“It means adults sometimes get scared and start making decisions for other people.”
Noah considered that.
“Like hiding bills?”
Lauren looked at him.
“What bills?”
He shrugged.
“The red envelopes Grandpa throws away before you get home.”
Robert turned.
“What are you talking about?”
Noah immediately regretted speaking.
Emily saw it.
She softened her voice.
“Where do you see them?”
“Kitchen trash.”
“How often?”
“Sometimes.”
Robert said sharply, “They’re junk mail.”
Noah looked at Emily.
“That’s what he says.”
Lauren stood.
“What red envelopes?”
Robert waved one hand.
“Collection garbage.”
“For what?”
“Nothing important.”
Lauren laughed once.
“We are literally losing the house.”
Robert slammed the envelope onto the table.
“I said it’s handled.”
Emily looked at him.
“Nothing in this house is handled.”
He pointed at the door.
“Then leave.”
Linda stood.
“Robert.”
“No.”
He was breathing hard now.
“She comes in here with her car and her coat and her attitude, writes notes like we’re a failed company, calls me a criminal in my own dining room, and everyone just sits there.”
Emily felt heat rise in her chest.
She could have matched him.
Seven years ago, she would have.
Today she picked up the Sterling documents.
“I’ll leave.”
Robert seemed surprised.
“Good.”
“I’m taking photographs first.”
“No.”
“I have a right to preserve evidence concerning a loan issued in my name.”
“You said you weren’t here as some lawyer.”
“I’m not.”
“You think you can threaten me because you have money now?”
Emily stared at him.
“I haven’t threatened you once.”
“You said evidence.”
“That is what documents are.”
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make things sound worse than they are.”
Emily looked around the room.
The foreclosure file.
The collection lawsuit.
The forged education loan.
Her mother’s impersonation.
Her nephew listening from the stairs.
She almost smiled from disbelief.
“I don’t have to.”
Robert’s anger faltered.
Emily removed her phone and began photographing the Sterling documents one by one.
He stood there watching.
He did not stop her.
Linda slowly gathered the coffee mugs.
One was still full.
Hers.
Emily had not taken a sip.
The domestic uselessness of the action struck her harder than another confrontation would have.
Her mother was clearing cups while the family’s history sat exposed across the table.
Lauren came closer.
“Can you help with the Midwest lawsuit?”
Emily kept photographing.
“Not directly.”
“Could you tell us what it means?”
“Yes.”
Robert scoffed.
Emily ignored him.
She finished the last page.
“Send me the complaint.”
Robert said, “Absolutely not.”
Lauren turned on him.
“Why?”
“Because she’ll use it against me.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Lauren stared.
“That’s your whole problem.”
Robert laughed bitterly.
“My whole problem is I trusted people.”
Emily stopped.
The sentence was so absurd she almost let it pass.
Instead she looked at him.
“You trusted people?”
Robert realized too late what he had said.
Emily picked up her bag.
“That is remarkable.”
“Here we go.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I’m not doing the speech.”
“What speech?”
“The one where I explain what you did to me so perfectly that you finally understand.”
Robert’s face changed.
Emily slipped the legal pad into her bag.
“I wasted years imagining that conversation.”
Linda stared at her.
Robert’s voice dropped.
“You thought about us?”
Emily looked at him.
He sounded almost surprised.
That hurt more than she expected.
“Of course I did.”
Linda sat down again.
Emily continued before anyone could turn the admission into leverage.
“I thought about calling.”
No one moved.
“I thought about coming back when I got promoted the first time.”
Lauren looked up.
“I thought about sending Noah birthday cards.”
His face changed.
Emily looked toward him.
“I bought some.”
Noah blinked.
“What?”
“I never mailed them.”
Lauren whispered, “Why?”
Emily looked at her.
“Because every possible contact felt like reopening the door.”
The sentence came out wrong.
The door.
She heard it as soon as they did.
Linda covered her mouth.
Emily turned away.
Noah broke the silence.
“I don’t remember that day.”
Emily looked at him.
“I know.”
“I remember your apartment later.”
She frowned.
“What apartment?”
“Mom showed me pictures.”
Lauren looked embarrassed.
“I had old photos.”
Noah shrugged.
“There was one with you sitting on the floor eating noodles.”
Emily stared at Lauren.
“Priya sent that to you?”
“No.”
Lauren rubbed her palms together.
“You emailed me once.”
“I did not.”
“Not you.”
She nodded toward Linda.
“Mom had access to your old email for a while.”
Emily felt all warmth leave her body.
“What?”
Linda froze.
Robert looked confused.
Lauren realized what she had done.
“Oh, God.”
Emily turned to her mother.
“You had access to my email?”
“It was the old account.”
“How?”
“You left the password written in your desk.”
Emily could barely speak.
“For how long?”
“A few months.”
“You said you only created an email for the lender.”
Linda’s eyes filled.
“I forgot about this.”
“You forgot?”
May you like
“I wasn’t reading everything.”
“That is not an answer.”
