Another four thousand.
Small enough, spaced far enough apart, that I had blamed fluctuations on insurance, repairs, taxes, and ordinary household spending.
I had trusted him to handle several automatic payments.
That trust had given him cover.
My husband shrugged.
“They were family expenses.”
“Whose family expenses?” I asked.
His mother’s face changed.
She knew some of those numbers.
“I only got two of those,” she said.
He stared at her.
The room became completely still.
I turned toward her.
“Which two?”
She pointed with one manicured finger.
“The twenty-five hundred when my transmission failed.
And the three thousand when I was behind on rent.”
My husband cut in.
“This is ridiculous.”
She looked at the four-thousand-dollar transfer.
“I never got that.”
Neither had I.
The attorney’s eyes shifted toward my husband.
My husband’s face hardened.
“Maybe you forgot that too.”
His mother pushed her chair back.
“Don’t you dare.”
For the first time since I had known her, her anger wasn’t aimed at me.
“You told me you were broke because she controlled everything,” she said.
My husband looked at me, then back at her.
“Mom, shut up.”
She stood.
“No.
You told me she watched every dollar.
You told me that was why I had to ask her directly.”
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
That explained the kitchen tears.
The hand-holding.
The daughter she never had.
My husband had sent her to me because the money he controlled was already gone.
I asked the question slowly.
“What did he tell you about the eight thousand?”
She hesitated.
“That he couldn’t move that much without you noticing.”
My husband slapped his palm on the table.
“Enough!”
Everyone flinched except the attorney.
My husband pointed at me.
“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you everything.
You turn every problem into an investigation.”
I stared at him.
“I investigated because someone put my signature on a loan application.”
“It wasn’t even approved.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
The bank representative’s expression sharpened.
My mother-in-law slowly turned her head.
