I read it twice.
Then I looked up.
“I am calling a lawyer,” I said.
CHAPTER 3 – What They Signed
Daniel followed me onto the back patio.
The rose garden looked wrecked in daylight. The arch had been dismantled, but pale petals lay crushed between the broken stems. My grandmother had planted those roses with me the summer I bought the house. She had made me promise never to let anyone tell me a garden was too much work for one person.
Daniel closed the sliding door behind us.
“Please don’t call anyone yet.”
I laughed once. “You really think you get to ask that?”
“I can explain the money.”
“So there is money.”
He looked toward the fence.
“The firm didn’t take off as quickly as I said.”
“That is not an explanation.”
“I borrowed from our account.”
“How much?”
His silence was worse than a number.
“How much, Daniel?”
“Forty-eight thousand.”
The patio blurred at the edges.
“That was our down payment fund.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
“The investment was supposed to mature.”
“What investment?”
He sat down hard on one of the metal chairs, his face in his hands. “A friend put me into a private fund.”
“A friend.”
“It was legitimate at first.”
“At first?”
“I lost it.”
