They denied possessing anything.
Then something unexpected happened.
Sarah called David.
Not me.
He put the call on speaker.
She was crying.
“David, I need to talk to Mom.”
“I’m here,” I said.
Silence.
Then:
“Oh.”
“What was in the envelope?”
“I don’t want to do this on the phone.”
“Then come to Denise’s office.”
“Without Greg?”
“Yes.”
She whispered, “Okay.”
Sarah arrived forty minutes later.
No makeup.
Hair pulled back.
She looked fifteen years younger.
For the first time, I saw the frightened teenager Robert had described in his letter.
She sat across from me.
David beside me.
Denise near the window.
Sarah twisted her wedding ring.
“Greg has the envelope.”
“We know.”
“He won’t give it back.”
“What was inside?”
She stared at the table.
“Dad had hired someone.”
“A private investigator?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“To investigate Greg.”
“When?”
“Before he got sick.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad never trusted him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Sarah began crying.
“Because money was disappearing again.”
David leaned forward.
“From where?”
“Dad’s personal accounts.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
“Small amounts. Cash withdrawals. Checks.”
“Greg was stealing from him?”
Sarah shook her head rapidly.
“No.”
“Then who?”
She said nothing.
And suddenly I knew.
“You.”
Her face crumpled.
I felt no triumph.
Just exhaustion.
“How much?”
“About twelve thousand.”
“Why?”
“Debt.”
“What debt?”
“Credit cards. Medical bills. Greg wasn’t working.”
“This was before your father died.”
“Yes.”
“You stole from a man with cancer.”
“I was going to pay it back.”
David stood.
“Are you serious?”
“Sit down,” Denise said.
He did, barely.
Sarah covered her face.
“I know what it sounds like.”
“It sounds like exactly what it was,” I said.
She lowered her hands.
“Dad caught me.”
“When?”
“Three months before he died.”
The same period as Robert’s final letter.
“What did he do?”
“He told me if I ever took another dollar, he was changing everything.”
“The trust.”
She nodded.
“So you knew.”
“I knew he was changing it. I didn’t know exactly how.”
“And Greg?”
“He knew Dad caught me.”
“Did Greg know about what happened when you were nineteen?”
“Yes.”
“Of course he did. He was involved.”
“I mean he knew Dad still had proof.”
“Sarah.”
She flinched.
“For nineteen years you let me believe your father lost forty-eight thousand dollars in a bad investment.”
“I was scared.”
“For nineteen years.”
“I was ashamed.”
“For nineteen years, I blamed him.”
Her tears came harder.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I leaned toward her.
“He died with me still occasionally teasing him about that terrible investment. Do you understand? I made jokes about it. He smiled. He let me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You stole his money twice.”
“The second time—”
“Do not explain the second time.”
The room went silent.
Then I asked the only question that mattered.
“What did the investigator find?”
Sarah looked at Denise.
Then me.
“Greg had another bank account.”
David swore under his breath.
“Money from where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“He said it was consulting.”
“What did Dad think?”
Sarah swallowed.
“He thought Greg had been taking money from me too.”
That surprised me.
“From you?”
She nodded.
“Dad believed Greg was moving money into an account I didn’t know about.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“What was the proof?”
“The investigator found an apartment lease.”
Silence.
David frowned.
“What apartment?”
Sarah’s face twisted.
“An apartment Greg had been paying for.”
My mind jumped immediately to another woman.
Apparently, so did David’s.
“Was he having an affair?”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
Then she looked directly at me.
“This is the part Dad never told anyone.”
My skin prickled.
“The apartment was rented for a woman named Marlene Hale.”
Greg’s last name.
“His mother?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Sarah whispered:
“His wife.”
Nobody spoke.
I thought I had misunderstood.
“His what?”
“Wife.”
“But you’re married to Greg.”
“I know.”
“That’s impossible.”
Sarah laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“Apparently not.”
Denise leaned forward.
“Was the earlier marriage legally dissolved?”
Sarah shook her head.
“The investigator couldn’t find a divorce record.”
David stared at her.
“So your marriage might not even be valid?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Greg know?”
“Of course he knew.”
“Did you?”
“Not until Dad found out.”
I pressed both hands against the table.
Robert had discovered his daughter’s husband may already have had a wife.
And he had told Sarah.
Not me.
Again.
“What did you do?”
“I confronted Greg.”
“And?”
“He said it was complicated.”
David laughed in disbelief.
“Oh, I love that word.”
“David.”
“No, seriously. Bigamy is complicated?”
Sarah glared at him.
“He said Marlene left him years earlier. He believed she filed everything.”
“And the apartment?”
Sarah looked away.
“He said she had nowhere to go.”
I stared at her.
“You believed him?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
