“Please leave the movers alone,” I said. “They need to finish.”
Stuart moved aside automatically. Jennifer did not.
“Where did the money go?” she asked.
“Jennifer.”
Stuart’s voice was sharp enough to make her turn.
“What?” she demanded. “You want to ask her too.”
He looked at me, and for a moment I saw the boy in the photograph. Then I saw the man who had stood over me at Thanksgiving.
“I do,” he said. “I need to know what happened to the money.”
He had lost the house before he had understood he could not claim it.
“I’ll discuss my finances with my attorney,” I said.
Jennifer gave a brittle laugh. “You have an attorney now?”
“Yes.”
Stuart stared at me. “Did you change the power of attorney?”
“I revoked it.”
The color came back into his face all at once.
“You think I’d use it against you?”
“I heard you and Jennifer in Robert’s study.”
Silence settled over the hallway.
From outside came the metallic rattle of the moving truck’s lift. One of the men stood just beyond the doorway, waiting. I told him to take his break. He nodded and walked down the steps.
Jennifer recovered first.
“You were listening to a private conversation?”
“In my own house,” I said.
“We were trying to make a plan because you refused to.”
“I heard your plan.”
Stuart rubbed a hand over his mouth.
“Mom, I said things I shouldn’t have.”
“You said I wouldn’t go willingly. Jennifer said you needed to document incidents. You discussed my house as if I were already gone.”
He did not deny it.
Jennifer crossed her arms. “You’re twisting what we meant.”
“Which part?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
I turned to Stuart. “There’s also a loan.”
He looked startled.
Lily had trusted me with what she heard. I had not meant to expose her. I chose my next words carefully.
“You and Jennifer have been arguing about one. I don’t need to know how much. I need to know whether either of you has used my name.”
“No,” Stuart said immediately.
Jennifer looked toward the front door.
I saw it. So did he.
“Jen?” he asked.
“I told you, I was trying to solve our problem.”
“What problem?” I said.
Stuart’s jaw tightened. “I was going to tell you after I figured it out.”
Jennifer laughed again, without amusement. “There isn’t time to figure it out.”
“Then tell me,” I said.
Stuart went into the dining room and sat on the only chair the movers had not yet taken.
His small building business had lost two contracts in the spring. He had kept paying his workers, expecting new work to arrive. Jennifer had arranged a loan to cover the gap. He had signed after she assured him they could manage the payments.
The loan was larger than he had understood.
“I read the papers,” he said, glancing at me. “I know what you’re going to say. I thought I did, anyway.”
Jennifer said he had been present when they agreed to the amount. Stuart said the amount on the application he saw was different from the amount they now owed.
“I should have checked every page,” he said.
“Yes,” I answered.
He accepted that without looking up.
The bank had begun calling. Jennifer had told him she could settle part of the debt if I sold the house and moved. She had spoken as though my agreement was only a matter of time.
“I said we could ask you for help,” Stuart told me. “She said you’d refuse.”
“You could have asked.”
