Chapter 7: What Lauren Knew
I didn't answer Lauren's message that night.
I forwarded the voicemail to David, photographed every document in the blue folder, and sent them before nine o'clock.
He replied with four words: *Received.
I'll call tomorrow.*
Ethan and I put Lily to bed together.
She asked for two stories instead of one, and neither of us said no.
By the time we turned off her light, it was past nine-thirty.
We sat in the kitchen with the box still on the table between us.
"Are you going to talk to her?" Ethan asked.
"I don't know yet."
"She said not Mom.
Just us."
"I heard what she said."
He wrapped both hands around his mug.
"She might know something useful."
"Or she might be trying to get ahead of it.
Manage what I do next before the attorney gets involved." I looked at the box.
"Lauren has always been better at damage control than she is at honesty."
He didn't argue with that.
I answered her the next morning.
*Come at eleven.
Ethan will be here.*
She arrived at five past.
No Diane this time.
She stood on the porch alone, and when I opened the door she looked smaller than she had the day before — not physically, but in the way she held herself.
The certainty was gone.
I let her in.
Ethan stayed in the kitchen.
I sat across from Lauren in the living room and waited.
"I didn't know she took it," Lauren said.
"Not until about a year ago."
"How did you find out?"
"She asked me to help her move some money between accounts.
She said it was an old investment she was restructuring.
I helped her set up the transfer and then afterward I looked at where it had come from." She paused.
"I recognized the account number.
I'd seen it in Grandma Helen's papers when we were clearing the house."
"And you didn't tell me."
"No."
"Why?"
Lauren looked at her hands.
"Because I told myself it wasn't my business.
Because Mom said she was going to sort it out.
Because —" She stopped.
"Because I didn't want the fight."
"Lauren.
That money was for Lily."
"I know."
"Grandma Helen wrote a note.
She specifically said it was for Lily's education.
She named her by name."
Lauren's throat moved.
"I didn't know about the note."
"But you knew about the account.
You knew I hadn't received it.
And you spent a year saying nothing." I leaned forward.
"And then on Christmas morning you searched the property records.
Why?
What were you actually looking for?"
A long pause.
"Mom had started talking about the money again.
Saying she needed to deal with it before the end of the year for tax reasons.
I got worried she was going to try to use it for something else — something permanent.
Something that couldn't be undone." Lauren finally looked up.
"I thought if I could find out whether you already knew, whether you'd already taken steps, then maybe I wouldn't have to be the one to tell you."
"You were hoping I'd already figured it out so you wouldn't have to."
She didn't deny it.
"Lauren, I need you to tell me exactly what you know.
Not what you think I can handle.
Not what protects Mom.
Everything."
Lauren reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.
She opened something and slid it across the coffee table toward me.
It was a screenshot of a bank transfer.
Sixty-two thousand, four hundred and seventeen dollars.
Dated three years ago.
From an account in Helen's name to an account in Diane's name.
"I took a screenshot when I helped her move it," Lauren said quietly.
"I don't know why.
I just did."
I looked at the numbers on the screen.
"Emily." Lauren's voice was unsteady.
"What's going to happen to Mom?"
I picked up the phone and looked at the transfer one more time before handing it back.
"That depends on what she does next," I said.
But even as I said it, my own phone was already buzzing on the cushion beside me.
David.
Calling earlier than expected.
"I need to take this," I said.
Lauren nodded.
She didn't move to leave.
I answered.
"David."
May you like
"Emily." A pause.
"Your mother's attorney contacted my office this morning."
