“Still behind?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I don’t want to talk about that here.”
“You asked to meet without Emily.”
“I wanted to apologize.”
“You also need to answer.”
He stood suddenly, then sat again.
“Some of the money went to things that weren’t the mortgage.”
“Which things?”
“Credit cards. Old business debt. The transmission. Bills.”
“And the house?”
“Some went there.”
“Some?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“I used part of it to keep the company alive.”
Margaret stared at him.
“The company that had already collapsed?”
“I was trying to restart.”
“Did it restart?”
“No.”
“Where did the rest go?”
He closed his eyes.
“Daniel.”
“There were loans.”
“What loans?”
“Private loans. Equipment. Payroll.”
“You used money marked for the mortgage to pay a company that was already failing?”
“I thought I could recover.”
“And when you couldn’t?”
“I borrowed more.”
Margaret heard her own breathing.
“What did you tell Emily?”
“That the business was improving.”
“And what did you tell me?”
“That I was getting stable.”
Neither sentence had been true.
Daniel bent forward and covered his face.
“I was ashamed.”
Margaret looked at him, and for a moment she saw the frightened man who had stood in her kitchen three years earlier.
Then she saw the man who had laughed when his son hit her.
