“Who wants lunch out?” I asked.
Then I went to the bank.
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Ava looked up. “Can we get fries?”
“Yes.”
Ben gasped like I had offered him a pony.
Grace frowned. “I thought I was making—”
“I know. Thank you.” I kept smiling. “I just need to get them out for a bit.”
I took the kids with me first. I dropped them at our neighbor Nina’s house and said I had errands and might cry in public if she asked questions. She hugged me and took them inside.
That explained why Grace had been hovering over me ever since the funeral.
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Then I went to the bank.
My name was on the children’s account too, so the manager was allowed to show me the file. Liam had frozen it two days before he died. No withdrawals without me present.
That explained why Grace had been hovering over me ever since the funeral.
She wasn’t just helping.
She was waiting.
From the bank, I drove to the storage unit Liam and I had rented years ago.
I played the recorder first.
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Taped under the old toolbox, exactly where he said, were a flash drive, another envelope, and a voice recorder.
I played the recorder first.
Liam’s voice came through calm and tired. “You have one week to tell Emily yourself.”
Grace was crying. “I said I’m going to fix it.”
“With what money?” Liam asked.
Then Ryan spoke, flat and ugly. “Stay out of it.”
Liam answered, “Emily and those kids are my family. You do not get to touch what belongs to them.”
That night I set a trap.
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Grace’s voice came back, panicked now. “Ryan, stop.”
The recording cut off.
I sat there on the concrete floor with my hand over my mouth.
For weeks, part of me had wondered whether Liam had hidden something from me.
He hadn’t.
He had been protecting us.
That night I set a trap.
Grace opened the folder.
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