Chapter 13
Connor and Richard looked at each other.
Richard stood first.
Connor followed.
Neither of them said anything as they gathered their things.
Richard paused at the front door.
"Diane," he said.
"For what it's worth—"
"It isn't worth anything right now, Richard." I said it without anger.
"Please go."
The door closed.
Madison and I were alone in the house for the first time since her father's funeral.
She was still sitting in the armchair when I heard Connor's car back out of the driveway.
She was looking at the coffee table where the folder had been.
I sat down across from her.
And neither of us said anything for a long, careful moment.
* * *
# CHAPTER 7: What She Said When They Were Gone
Madison spoke first.
"I didn't think it would become this," she said.
"I want you to know that."
"Tell me how it started," I said.
"From the beginning.
Not what you told yourself about it.
What actually happened."
She was quiet for a moment, pulling the thread of it back to wherever it began.
"It was last winter," she finally said.
"We were having a hard time.
Connor's firm had a slow quarter.
We had the mortgage, and the car payment, and we'd borrowed against the equity twice already.
Richard kept saying there was an obvious solution sitting right here — the lake house." She looked toward the glass doors.
"He said the vacation rental market up here was strong.
He said it would only be for a season or two.
He said you'd never have to know."
"And you agreed to that."
"I told myself I was protecting you." She looked back at me.
"You were already stressed about the maintenance costs.
I thought if we could generate some income from the property without bothering you, it would actually help."
"You were protecting me by hiding it from me."
She had the grace to hear what that sentence actually said.
Her eyes dropped.
"I know how that sounds."
May you like
"I'm not asking how it sounds.
I'm asking if you believed it."
