She did tell him enough.
The tax notice had been real.
The house was in danger.
But Loretta had exaggerated the amount.
She owed just under eleven thousand dollars, not thirty-eight.
Marcus sat at the kitchen table when Amber told him.
“Where is the rest?”
Amber’s face was gray.
“She gave Anthony twenty.”
Marcus stared.
“Your brother?”
“Yes.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
“And the other seven?”
“She says she paid medical bills.”
“Do you believe her?”
Amber shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus leaned back.
For once, Amber did not defend her mother.
She did not attack Ruth either.
She simply sat there.
“I feel stupid.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You lied to me for fifteen years.”
“I know.”
“You took thirty-eight thousand dollars without telling me.”
“I know.”
“You humiliated my mother.”
Amber closed her eyes.
“I know.”
Marcus’s voice cracked.
“I don’t know what to do with you right now.”
Amber nodded.
“I know that too.”
He slept in the guest room.
For six weeks.
Ruth learned about the arrangement from neither of them.
Maya, Marcus’s oldest daughter, told her.
