Chapter 2 - Don’t Go Home
I drove away from Margaret’s house with Maisie strapped into her car seat behind me.
Her crying had finally stopped.
Every few seconds, I looked into the rearview mirror.
The red mark was still visible on her cheek.
She held her stuffed rabbit against her chest.
Her eyes were heavy.
“Mama?”
“I’m here, baby.”
“Nana mad?”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
“No, sweetheart.”
I forced my voice to remain calm.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She seemed to consider that.
Then she whispered something that nearly broke me.
“Daddy mad?”
“No.”
I didn’t know whether that was true.
I didn’t know anything anymore.
My phone rang through the car speakers.
Tessa.
I answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Driving.”
“Where?”
“I was going home.”
“No.”
The urgency in her voice made my stomach tighten.
“Please don’t.”
“Tessa, what is going on?”
There was silence on the other end.
Then I heard a door close.
“I’m outside.”
“Outside where?”
“Mom’s house.”
Her breathing sounded shaky.
“Evan is still inside with her.”
“What are they hiding?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“I know.”
She sounded close to tears.
“I should have said something sooner.”
My anger rose.
“Said what?”
“About the money.”
I nearly missed the next red light.
“What money?”
Tessa inhaled slowly.
“About two years ago, I went to Mom’s house because she said she needed help moving boxes from Dad’s old office.”
Margaret’s husband had died four years earlier.
She had transformed his office into what she called her private study.
Nobody was allowed inside without permission.
“I found bank statements,” Tessa continued.
“What kind of statements?”
“They had Evan’s name on them.”
My mouth went dry.
“And yours.”
I pulled into a grocery store parking lot.
Maisie had fallen asleep.
I put the car in park.
“What did you just say?”
“I saw your name.”
“On what?”
“A company account.”
I closed my eyes.
“What company?”
“Hale Family Holdings.”
I had never heard those words before.
“What is Hale Family Holdings?”
“I thought you knew.”
“Tessa.”
“I swear.”
Her voice cracked.
“I thought it was something you and Evan had created.”
“We haven’t created any company.”
The silence that followed made my heart pound.
“There were transfers,” she whispered.
“How much?”
“I only saw one statement.”
“How much, Tessa?”
“Almost ninety thousand dollars.”
For a moment, everything around me seemed to disappear.
The cars.
The parking lot lights.
The soft sound of Maisie breathing behind me.
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Evan caught me looking.”
My eyes opened.
“He told you not to say anything?”
“He said it was private.”
“That doesn’t explain why you stayed quiet.”
Tessa started crying.
“He said you knew.”
I said nothing.
“He said you were embarrassed because the investment had gone badly.”
My stomach twisted.
“What investment?”
“I don’t know.”
Then her voice became quieter.
“But Mom said something afterward.”
“What?”
“She told him you could never find out what they had done.”
The words settled inside the car like poison.
“Tessa.”
“Yes?”
“Send me everything you have.”
“I already did.”
My phone chimed.
Eight screenshots appeared.
Bank transfers.
Emails.
A photograph of a document.
And one text message from Evan to Margaret.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
MOM: If she sees the withdrawal, what are you going to tell her?
EVAN: She won’t.
MOM: You said that last time.
EVAN: I moved the statements to paperless and changed the recovery email.
MOM: And the college account?
EVAN: Handled.
My hands began shaking.
Maisie’s college account.
The account my father had helped us open when she was born.
The account containing the money he had given his granddaughter before he died.
I stared at my sleeping daughter in the mirror.
Then I called my best friend Nora.
“Can Maisie and I stay with you tonight?”
Nora heard something in my voice.
She didn’t ask why.
“Come now.”
Before I ended the call, Tessa spoke again.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Whatever you do tomorrow.”
May you like
She paused.
“Don’t let Evan know you’re checking the house documents.”
