“What was the money for?”
“Some obligations.”
“How much?”
“Mama, please.”
“How much, Daniel?”
“Eighty thousand.”
She lowered herself into the chair because her knees needed it. Daniel reached toward her shoulder, but she moved just far enough that his hand found only air.
Martin quietly pushed a glass of water within her reach.
Ruth left it untouched.
Daniel spoke quickly now. There were old business debts. Interest. A payment coming due. He had expected a commission that had not arrived. He would have repaid Martin before anything became complicated.
Ruth knew that language.
Years earlier, he had used the same hurried sentences across her kitchen table while foreclosure notices lay beneath his elbows.
She had paid the balance then. They had transferred the house to her properly, with an attorney, so she could protect what remained of her savings.
He had promised to pay modest rent.
For the first few months, he had.
Then there had always been something more urgent.
“You could have asked me,” she said.
“You would have said no.”
The answer came so quickly that neither of them could pretend it meant anything else.
Ruth looked at the dinner he had arranged, the polished glasses, the expensive flowers.
“Yes,” she said. “I would have.”
Daniel glanced toward Martin again.
That was when she understood the invitation differently.
“Did you invite me because you wanted me here?”
“Don’t do this.”
“Did you?”
He pressed his thumb into the edge of the table.
Martin spoke reluctantly.
“He told me you might join us. I said I hoped you would.”
Ruth turned toward him.
“I knew your name from the assistance fund at work,” Martin continued. “The foreclosure counselor you first spoke with was someone our office recommended.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You didn’t need to bring that up.”
“She asked me a question.”
Ruth remembered the counselor, a patient woman who had explained every figure twice without making her feel foolish. She had never known who arranged that first appointment.
Martin looked ashamed now.
“And when he spoke to you just now, I should have said something immediately.”
“Yes,” Ruth said.
He accepted it without defending himself.
Daniel pushed his chair back.
