Chapter 14
A long pause.
The refrigerator hummed in the kitchen.
The lake was very still outside.
"At first," she said quietly.
"At first I believed it.
And then the money started coming in and it was — it was easier not to look too closely."
"When did you know about the signature?" I asked.
She closed her eyes briefly.
"February.
Richard mentioned he'd had the management paperwork drawn up.
He said he'd taken care of the signature.
I should have asked more questions.
I told myself he'd had you sign something I'd missed."
"You knew that wasn't true."
"Yes." No hesitation this time.
Just the single word, sitting between us.
"I knew."
I let that sit.
Outside, a pair of mergansers moved across the water in a straight line, steady and unhurried, heading somewhere the rest of the lake wasn't.
"I need to tell you something," I said.
"And I need you to hear it without explaining or defending.
Can you do that?"
She nodded.
"This house is the last thing your father and I built together.
Not the only thing — you are more than any house could ever be.
But this house is where I have felt closest to him since he's been gone.
The idea of keeping it has cost me real money, real sacrifice, for years.
And the decision to let it go — to finally sell it — was the hardest financial decision I have made since his death." I kept my voice steady.
"When I drove up here this morning, I thought I was doing something brave.
Something forward.
And instead I walked into my own living room and found out that my house had been someone else's property for four months, with my name signed to papers I never saw." I looked at her.
"That is what this has cost me.
Not the money.
That."
Madison pressed her fingers against her mouth.
May you like
Her shoulders moved once.
Then she straightened.
