Chapter 2
I stared at Andre until he looked away.
“What did she give you?”
He took out his phone.
Nia moved toward him, but I stepped between them.
“No more grabbing things. No more stopping him.”
Her eyes widened. I had never spoken to her that way.
Andre opened a photograph and held the screen toward me.
It showed a document with my name printed beneath a signature.
At the top was the name of a private lender.
I had never borrowed money from them.
“What is this?”
“A guarantee.”
“For what?”
“A business loan.”
I looked at Nia.
She covered her face.
Andre continued.
“She sent it to me last fall. Said you agreed to back an investment.”
“I agreed to nothing.”
“I know that now.”
I stared at the signature.
It looked enough like mine to fool someone who didn’t know me.
I knew the difference immediately.
My last name ended with a downward stroke. This one curved upward.
“How much?”
Andre named a number that made me sit down.
One hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
The living room seemed to shrink around me.
“For your construction company?”
“Part of it.”
“What does that mean?”
Andre breathed out.
“The loan involved a property partnership. Nia handled some of the paperwork. She gave the lender records and represented that you consented.”
I turned toward her.
“Did you sign my name?”
“Marcus, I thought it would be paid back before—”
“Did you sign it?”
“Yes.”
The admission was so quiet I almost missed it.
I stood again.
“What did you pledge?”
Nia looked toward the staircase.
Andre answered.
“Your interest in this house. There are other assets listed too.”
“Which assets?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
I knew then that the silence held something worse.
“What assets, Andre?”
“Your mother’s rental property.”
My hand went numb around the spare key.
Mom owned a small duplex across town. She lived in one unit and rented the other. She worked thirty-seven years as a school administrator to pay for it.
Nia helped her organize bills after a surgery last spring.
I had been grateful.
“Mom never agreed to anything.”
Nia cried harder.
“She signed an authorization.”
“For you to pay utilities while she recovered.”
“I thought the investment was safe.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
Andre held out the phone.
“There are documents I need you to see.”
I didn’t take it.
“Send them. All of them.”
He asked for my email address. I gave him one I used for work records.
Nia wiped her cheeks.
“We can fix this.”
“Where is the money?”
Andre looked at her.
“She has some of it.”
“How much?”
“Not enough,” he said.
I took a breath.
My wife had given another man a key to our home. She had signed my name. She had reached into my mother’s life while Mom trusted her.
I wanted to demand every answer immediately.
Instead, I called Mom.
She answered with Ava singing in the background.
“Everything okay?”
“I need Ava to stay with you tonight.”
Mom went quiet.
“Marcus?”
“She’s safe. I’ll explain when I get there.”
“Of course.”
“Don’t sign anything or discuss your finances with anyone until I speak with you.”
Her voice changed.
“What happened?”
“I’ll tell you in person.”
I ended the call.
Nia looked at me.
“You’re taking Ava?”
“She’s already with Mom. She’s staying there while the adults deal with this.”
“She’s my daughter too.”
“I know. She does not need to come home to this argument.”
Andre reached toward the key I was holding.
“I’ll leave.”
“You should have left months ago.”
He moved toward the door.
“Send the documents before you go.”
He did. My phone chimed.
I checked the attachments, then looked at him.
“You knew she was married.”
“Yes.”
“You knew that was my house key.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t pretend the papers are the first dishonest thing that happened.”
He nodded without meeting my eyes.
Nia followed him toward the door.
“Andre, don’t talk to anybody else.”
I heard fear in her voice.
Andre stopped.
“You told them I was the only one responsible.”
Nia froze.
I looked at him.
“Told whom?”
“The lender. Their attorney contacted me yesterday.”
He turned back toward her.
“You said you would fix it. Then you sent them a statement saying I misled you.”
Nia whispered, “You did.”
“And you signed his name.”
They stared at each other.
I felt sick.
Andre had come to my house because their arrangement was collapsing. The closeness on the sofa was not a tender moment interrupted. It was a private dispute I was never meant to hear.
That didn’t make the betrayal smaller.
It made it deeper.
I asked him to leave.
He did.
After the door closed, I stood facing Nia.
“I’m going to speak to a lawyer.”
“Please don’t make this public.”
“My mother could lose her home.”
“She won’t. I can get the money.”
“From where?”
She looked down.
I went upstairs and packed clothes for myself and Ava. Nia followed me but stayed outside the bedroom.
“Do you still love me?”
I stopped folding.
“I don’t know what to do with that question tonight.”
She began crying again.
At the front door, I placed the blue-capped key on the table.
“I’m arranging a lock change with you informed. No one else comes inside.”
Nia nodded.
I drove to Mom’s house.
Ava met me wearing a paper crown covered in paint.
“Daddy, Grandma says I’m the queen of the kitchen.”
I crouched and hugged her.
May you like
Over her shoulder, I saw Mom watching me.
For the first time in my adult life, I was afraid I had brought danger to her doorstep.
