Chapter 3 - The Family Empire of Dust
The air in the dining room felt poisoned.
Mom stared at Dad in absolute horror. “Arthur… what are you saying? Collateral?”
“She forged my name, Eleanor!” Dad bellowed, tears springing to his eyes. “Your sweet, affectionate, innocent little Lauren stole my pension credentials, forged my signature, and took out a two-hundred-thousand-dollar equity line against this very house!”
Mom staggered back against the sideboard, knocking over a silver candleholder. She looked at Lauren, waiting for the denial, waiting for her favorite daughter to laugh it off as a misunderstanding.
Lauren didn’t laugh. The victim act was gone. Her eyes narrowed, cold and calculating.
“You never gave me what you gave Claire,” Lauren spat, her voice dropping into a dark, bitter tone I had never heard from her before. “You paid for her master’s degree! You bought her and Daniel their down payment! What did I get? A pat on the back and a lecture about responsibility!”
“We gave you a wedding!” Mom whispered, her voice cracking. “We paid off your credit cards twice!”
“Pennies!” Lauren sneered. She stepped away from the table, looking at all of us with pure disdain. “You all sat here acting like Claire was the golden child just because she married a nice, quiet accountant. Well, guess what? Your precious Daniel isn’t as innocent as he looks.”
She turned her venomous gaze onto me.
“You think he’s loyal to you, Claire? Ask him where he was on the night of April 14th. Ask him why his car was parked behind my apartment complex for three hours while Mark was out of town.”
I looked at Daniel.
He didn’t look angry. He looked broken.
“Daniel,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “Where were you on April 14th?”
May you like
“Claire, please,” Daniel begged, taking a step toward me, but I took two steps back. “I can explain. I swear to God I can explain, but you have to let me explain away from her!”
“No,” Mark interrupted, pulling a thick Manila envelope from his coat pocket and throwing it onto the middle of the table. “We’re explaining everything tonight. Right here.”
