She looked at me with a face I will never forget.
“I know.”
“No.” My voice shook. “You do not get to say it like weather. You sent him there.”
She covered her mouth.
I asked the question I had been holding since Mark handed me the envelope.
“After Liam died, why did you stand beside me like you loved me?”
She looked at me with a face I will never forget.
“Because I do love you,” she said. “And because I hated myself every second.”
“Please let me say goodbye to the kids.”
I believed her.
That made it worse.
I pointed at the door. “Leave.”
She stared at me. “Please let me say goodbye to the kids.”
“No.”
“Emily, please.”
“If you are still here when they come back, I will call the police before you reach the porch.”
Then police found traffic footage of his truck behind Liam’s car minutes before the crash.
She left.
The next morning I took everything to an attorney Liam had already contacted. That hurt in its own way. He had known enough to prepare for not coming home.
The legal part moved fast after that. The attorney helped lock everything down and recover part of the money from Grace’s share of our mother’s estate. The recording was not the whole case, but it confirmed what Liam’s notes and the bank records already showed.
Ryan ran for a while.
Then police found traffic footage of his truck behind Liam’s car minutes before the crash. Later, paint transfer from Liam’s rear panel matched Ryan’s bumper. It had looked like a wet-road accident because that was exactly what Ryan wanted it to look like.
Then I opened the box.
Two weeks later, Grace came to my house in the rain.
She held a cashier’s check in one hand and a box in the other.
“This is the first repayment,” she said.
I took the check.
Then I opened the box.
Inside was Liam’s watch, a tie clip, and a few other small things. She had helped me pack his belongings two days after the funeral. I hadn’t even noticed what was missing.
Then I opened the box.
My throat tightened. “You took these?”
She nodded. “I wanted something of his.”
