PART 3
Mark looked at me.
“I didn’t do that.”
“I know.”
His eyes widened.
“You know?”
“I know you didn’t personally fill out the application.”
He looked relieved for half a second.
Then I continued.
“But I know whose computer was used.”
His relief disappeared.
Barbara suddenly whispered, “Sarah, please.”
I turned toward her.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
“You’ve spent years telling me I was nothing but an outsider in this family,” I said. “Tonight, I want you to understand something.”
I pointed toward Ethan.
“You may have convinced your son that I wasn’t family.”
Then I pointed toward the house around us.
“But you never had the right to take what belonged to my child.”
Mark looked confused.
“What does Ethan have to do with this?”
I stared at him.
“Everything.”
His face tightened.
Mr. Sterling opened the envelope.
“Sarah asked our office to investigate the financial activity surrounding the apartment transaction. We found several irregularities.”
Mark swallowed.
“What irregularities?”
Mr. Sterling removed a document.
“The apartment Barbara claims she needed because she couldn’t afford her current living situation was purchased six years ago.”
Mark looked at his mother.
“That can’t be right.”
“It is,” Mr. Sterling said.
“Six years ago,” I added, “you and I had only been married for two years.”
Mark slowly shook his head.
“No. Mom was renting.”
Barbara looked away.
“Mom?”
She finally whispered, “I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Worry about what?”
She didn’t answer.
Mark turned toward me.
“Sarah, this doesn’t prove anything.”
I almost laughed.
“Mark, the deed proves everything.”
Mr. Sterling handed him a copy.
Mark scanned it.
His eyebrows pulled together.
Then his eyes widened.
The property was indeed registered to Barbara.
But the purchase price was listed directly on the document.
Mark’s voice dropped.
“Where did you get seventy-eight thousand dollars?”
Barbara remained silent.
“Mom!”
She flinched.
I watched him struggle to process it.
For years, Mark had defended his mother with the same sentence.
“She doesn’t have money.”
He had used that sentence whenever she wanted something.
A new refrigerator.
Dental work.
Medication.
A vacation.
Rent.
Groceries.
A car repair.
He had always insisted that Barbara was struggling.
Yet there she stood, the owner of an apartment worth far more than the house Mark and I had purchased together.
Mr. Sterling reached into the envelope again.
“There is more.”
He handed Mark another page.
“This is a transfer record from six years ago.”
Mark stared at it.
Then his face changed.
“That’s my account.”
I folded my arms.
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“Why was money transferred from my account?”
I answered quietly.
“Because your mother took it.”
Barbara snapped.
“I did not steal anything!”
“No,” I said. “You convinced your son to give it to you.”
Mark looked between us.
“How much?”
Mr. Sterling answered.
“Thirty-four thousand dollars.”
Mark staggered backward.
“Thirty-four…”
His voice disappeared.
I nodded.
“Remember that bonus you told me you never received?”
Mark looked at me.
“You said your company didn’t pay it.”
“I remember.”
“You said you used it to pay off your credit card.”
“I remember.”
“You said you couldn’t help with Ethan’s preschool tuition because you were broke.”
His jaw tightened.
“I remember.”
I pointed at the document.
“You gave it to her.”
Barbara suddenly shouted.
“He wanted to help me!”
I looked at her.
“Then why did you make him lie?”
Barbara’s mouth closed.
Mark turned toward her.
“Mom?”
She looked frightened now.
“Mark, I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Losing everything.”
He stared at her.
“You already had everything.”
She shook her head.
“You don’t understand.”
“No,” Mark said quietly. “I don’t.”
That was the first time I’d ever heard those words from him.
Not directed at me.
Directed at her.
Ethan suddenly spoke from the hallway.
“Dad?”
Everyone turned.
He was still holding his stuffed T-Rex.
Mark’s expression softened immediately.
“What is it, buddy?”
Ethan hesitated.
“Are you going to leave?”
Mark froze.
I watched the question hit him harder than anything else that night.
He crouched down.
“No.”
Ethan stepped backward.
“You always say you’re going to help Grandma.”
Mark swallowed.
“I know.”
“You said Grandma needed you more than Mom.”
Barbara’s face changed.
Mark looked at Ethan.
“When did I say that?”
Ethan’s voice trembled.
“Last Christmas.”
Mark looked at me.
I nodded.
“Yes.”
Ethan continued.
“Grandma told me Mom only stayed with Daddy because of money.”
Barbara’s eyes widened.
“I never—”
“Don’t lie,” Ethan whispered.
The room became completely silent.
My son had never spoken to Barbara that way.
He was eight years old.
He shouldn’t have needed to.
Mark slowly stood.
He looked at his mother.
“Did you say that to him?”
Barbara’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was angry.”
“You told my son his mother didn’t love me.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“You told my son his mother was using me.”
“Mark…”
“You told him that?”
Barbara covered her face.
And Mark finally understood.
This wasn’t about an apartment.
It wasn’t about money.
It wasn’t even about me.
She had been poisoning the relationship between a father and his child.
For years.
Mr. Sterling cleared his throat.
“There’s another issue we need to address.”
Mark turned toward him.
“What?”
“The credit card.”
Mark looked confused.
“What about it?”
Mr. Sterling placed another document on the table.
“The card was opened using Sarah’s Social Security information.”
“I told you, I didn’t open it.”
“I believe you.”
Mark frowned.
“Then why are you looking at me?”
“We aren’t.”
Mr. Sterling turned toward Barbara.
She went completely still.
Mark stared at his mother.
“No.”
Barbara shook her head.
