Chapter 5
Dad kept the screen door closed.
Evan had sold houses for years. At family dinners, he liked to tell stories about deals he had rescued at the last minute. He had also called me “little professor” whenever I had a book with me.
Now he stood on our porch beside Claire and asked to come in.
“No,” Dad said. “Tell me why you’re here.”
Claire folded her arms. “Because Brooke won’t answer my calls.”
“I answered twice,” Brooke said from behind us. “You asked me to tell Maya to drop the dispute.”
Claire flinched.
Evan raised both hands. “Let’s lower the temperature. The Alder Lane deposit is tied up. If Daniel withdraws his complaint, Claire can get the closing back on track.”
I stepped closer to the door.
“You’re still trying to buy the house.”
Evan looked at me. “That house is a smart purchase.”
“With my money.”
“It would have benefited the family.”
“Which family?” Brooke asked.
No one answered.
Renee leaned against the hall wall, her notebook in hand.
“Evan, are you acting as Claire’s agent in the purchase?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know where the deposit came from?”
Claire spoke at once. “He knew I had funds.”
Evan nodded too quickly. “That’s all.”
Dad watched him.
“You stood in this kitchen last month and told me Claire and I should take a vacation,” he said. “You knew she was arranging another home.”
“That was her business.”
Dad opened the screen door a few inches.
“This money is Maya’s future. Do not ask me to release it again.”
He shut the door.
Evan’s jaw moved, but Claire put a hand on his arm. They went back to his car.
Brooke watched from the front window until they drove away.
“She wanted me to live there,” she said.
Dad stood beside her. “You can talk to her if you want to.”
“I know.”
“You can love your mother and still be angry.”
Brooke nodded, though her eyes filled.
On Monday, we went to the dealership. The Mustang sat in our driveway until then. Nobody had driven it. Dad kept the keys in the kitchen drawer.
The manager listened while Dad explained how the car had been paid for. He had already reviewed the sale documents.
“We can take the vehicle back,” he said. “There’s paperwork and a loss in value now that it’s been sold. I can give you the exact amount we’d return.”
It was less than forty-one thousand dollars.
Brooke stared at the desk.
“Do it,” she said.
Dad asked her if she was sure.
“I was never going to drive it.”
The manager gave us the figures in writing. Dad sent them to the attorney helping with the bank dispute before signing anything.
Outside, Brooke looked back through the showroom window at the red car.
“I was so happy,” she said.
“You’re allowed to have been happy,” I told her.
“I keep remembering every picture I took.”
I had seen some of them. Brooke smiling in the driver’s seat. Claire leaning through the open window. Dad standing behind the car with a paper cup from the party.
“I thought I had to hate you for it,” I said.
She turned to me.
“I was jealous. For a while. Then I saw you give the keys back.”
Brooke swallowed. “I wish I could give you all of it.”
I put my arm around her.
Dad’s attorney called that afternoon with a harder piece of news. The account company had traced the withdrawal request to Dad’s usual household device. Someone had approved it using a code sent to a tablet Claire often used.
Dad sat at the dining table, staring at the screen.
He had kept the tablet on the kitchen counter for bills, recipes, and family schedules. Claire had known the password. The records showed exactly when someone had opened the message and completed the request.
Renee told us to preserve the tablet and every message.
I went to unplug it from the kitchen charger. Before I touched it, a notification appeared from Evan.
Don’t tell Daniel about the first deposit. They only know about Friday.
I called Dad into the room.
He read it, then called Renee.
“What first deposit?” I asked.
Dad opened the bank records he had received that morning. He searched slowly, month by month.
I stood behind his chair.
May you like
There were two smaller transfers I had never seen: one in spring and one early that summer. Claire had moved money out of the college account, then replaced it before I checked the balance.
For months, she had been practicing.
