Chapter 4
For a moment, I could not hear anything.
Not Hope.
Not the people outside.
Not my sister saying my name.
Three weeks ago.
I had been in the hospital three weeks ago, frightened by early contractions and apologizing to a nurse because I could not stop crying.
Someone had been receiving my husband’s life insurance while I wondered whether I could afford a crib.
“Where did it go?” I asked.
Simone did not soften the answer with guesses.
“The insurer is investigating the payment instructions. We need the documents you signed.”
Marcus reached for his phone.
She stopped him.
“Don’t warn her about every piece of evidence.”
He lowered his hand.
I had never seen him obey someone so quickly.
Tasha drove me home while Marcus remained at the venue.
He wanted to come.
I wanted to enter my apartment without an audience.
For the first time that day, he listened.
The kitchen light flickered when I switched it on.
Hope’s bassinet stood beside my bed. The clean laundry was stacked on a chair because folding it had felt impossible.
I expected Tasha to say something about the mess.
Instead, she washed her hands and asked where I kept the diapers.
I found the insurance folder beneath a hospital booklet.
The release was there.
So was a copy of a second form.
I did not remember signing it.
My name appeared at the bottom.
The letters looked like mine until I examined the first stroke of the M.
I always curled it.
This one did not.
I took photographs and sent them to Simone through the secure link she provided.
Then I sat on the bed.
Nia had offered to help because I was too tired to read.
I had believed her because she was marrying Eli’s brother.
I had mistaken a family connection for safety.
Tasha sat beside me.
“You trusted somebody who gave you a reason to trust her.”
“I should have checked.”
“She should have told the truth.”
I leaned against her shoulder.
For several minutes, we stayed there while Hope slept.
Marcus arrived after dark with groceries, not a moving truck or a speech.
He stood at the doorway.
“May I come in?”
I nodded.
He put the bags on the counter and looked at the room.
His gaze stopped on the empty space above my dresser.
Eli’s watch box was still there.
I had not been able to throw it away.
Marcus said nothing.
I appreciated that more than I could explain.
He had canceled the wedding. His mother was staying with a cousin. Nia had left the venue with her mother, Denise.
The guests had been told the ceremony would not proceed.
“That’s all they needed to know,” he said.
I looked at him.
“People will talk.”
“Yes.”
“About me.”
He sat down.
“I won’t pretend I can prevent every cruel sentence. But I won’t leave you alone with them.”
Simone called while Tasha made soup.
The forged payment form had instructed the insurer to deposit the benefit into an account described as a household account managed on my behalf.
There had also been an altered identification attachment.
My stomach turned.
“I never agreed to that.”
“I know,” Simone said. “The insurer has opened a fraud investigation. Tomorrow, we make a report and preserve everything.”
Marcus asked whether the money could be recovered.
“Possibly. We don’t promise that before tracing it.”
I was grateful for the honesty.
Everyone else had been telling me things would work out.
Simone was telling me what she would do.
After the call, Marcus looked at me.
“I can cover the rent tonight.”
I shook my head automatically.
He waited.
No offended expression.
No reminder of how much he had already offered.
“I don’t want my daughter growing up as everyone’s obligation,” I said.
His face softened.
“She’s my niece.”
“I know.”
“And you’re Maya. You don’t stop being family because Eli died.”
I pressed my lips together.
I had needed someone to say that for seven weeks.
Before I could answer, my phone lit up.
A message from Nia.
You have no idea what you’ve destroyed.
I showed Marcus.
He read it once and gave the phone back.
“Save it.”
Another message followed.
If you drag my mother into this, you’ll regret it.
Tasha turned off the stove.
Nobody spoke.
Then a third message arrived.
It was a photograph.
An invoice from the wedding venue.
A large deposit.
The date was two days after the insurance payment.
I stared at it.
Under the image, Nia had written:
You think weddings pay for themselves?
I felt something inside me go very quiet.
That morning, I had stood beneath flowers purchased while my rent went unpaid.
I had apologized for wearing a milk-stained shirt.
I had tried to leave politely.
Marcus looked at the screen over my shoulder.
His face changed.
I had seen him angry before.
I had never seen him this still.
Tasha moved closer to me.
I saved the image.
May you like
Then I sent it to Simone.
For the first time that day, my hands stopped trembling.
