My mother opened her mouth. Closed it.
Chloe turned to me.
Her face was pink and blotchy and she looked about twelve years old.
“You didn’t know,” she said. “About any of this. Did you?”
“No, Chlo,” I said. “I didn’t know you were pregnant until I walked in the door.”
My sister stared at me.
“They told me you knew,” she whispered. “They said you were too busy to call. I thought you didn’t care.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
We stood there across the living room from each other, my little sister and me, with a whole lifetime of our parents’ stories between us.
Then Vance cleared his throat.
“I knew about the money,” he said.
Everyone turned.
Vance’s face was bright red. He was looking at the floor. His big hands were hanging at his sides.
“Not the forgery. I swear I didn’t know about that. Your mom said Kate had set up a thing. Before she left. To help us. She said we should just use it and not make a big deal, because Kate was private about money.” He swallowed. “But I knew it was Kate’s money. And I knew it was a lot. And I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to ask.” He looked at Chloe. “We were so behind, babe. I didn’t want you to know how bad it was. I just wanted it to stop.”
Chloe looked at him like she’d never seen him before.
Then she sat back down on the gray couch. Slowly. Carefully. She put both hands over her face.
My father tried one more time.
He did it the way he’d done everything my whole life. He stood up straight. He turned to Special Agent Harlan, man to man, and he lowered his voice to that calm, reasonable tone.
