I pulled it back before he could touch it.
Judge Harper shifted half a step closer.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Daniel stopped.
Dad rubbed his forehead.
“Your mother asked me whether I still had access.
I told her I didn’t.”
“And then?”
“She asked if I knew who had worked on the locks.”
My mother snapped, “Robert.”
He looked at her.
“No.
I’m done.”
That was the first time all evening anyone in my immediate family had refused her.
Dad turned to me.
“I gave her the locksmith’s name.
That’s all.”
I felt cold despite the warm Cape May air.
“Did you contact him?” I asked Mom.
“No.”
The denial was instant.
Too instant.
Judge Harper’s gaze shifted to her.
Mom noticed.
“Oh, stop looking at me like I’m a criminal.”
Judge Harper answered evenly.
“I am looking at you like someone who should choose her next sentence carefully.”
Mom’s face flushed.
Daniel grabbed his jacket from the chair.
“We’re leaving.”
Kendra did not move.
He looked at her.
“Kendra.”
She shook her head.
“Did you know your mother was trying to get a key?”
Daniel said nothing.
That silence answered her.
Kendra stood slowly.
“You told me Claire had agreed before and changed her mind because she didn’t like me.”
Daniel looked around the table as if searching for someone to rescue him.
No one did.
“I was trying to keep our family together,” he said.
“By lying to me?”
“We needed somewhere to go.”
“You could have told me that.”
“I knew what you’d say.”
Kendra picked up her purse.
“Apparently you didn’t.”
She walked away from the table toward the restaurant entrance.
Daniel started after her, but I spoke before he could leave.
“You need to take this.”
I held out the attorney’s letter.
He stared at it.
“What happens if I don’t?”
“My attorney sends it formally tomorrow.
