Chapter 8: What Nathan Said to Her
He already knew.
That was the first thing he said when I called him from the car.
"Roy found it this morning," he said.
"Madison's attorney submitted a financial disclosure that included account details Nathan had never shared with Madison directly.
Roy traced it back.
Mom's name came up in the bank's access log.
She'd looked up the account online three weeks ago from her home computer.
Nathan had added her as an emergency contact years ago and never removed her."
His voice was very quiet.
"Nathan," I said.
"I'm okay."
"You don't have to be okay."
"I know." A pause.
"She called me while you were at her house.
She told me her version.
The one about Madison being afraid of me."
"What did you say?"
"I asked her one question.
I asked her if she believed it." A long silence.
"She said she didn't know."
I closed my eyes.
"She didn't know," he said again.
"She gave a woman she'd known for two years information that could be used against her own son, and when she found out what happened, she didn't know if she believed the story she'd been told."
I didn't say anything.
"I told her I needed time," he said.
"She started crying.
I told her I still needed time."
"That was the right thing to say."
"I don't know what the right thing is." His voice was tired in a way I hadn't heard since he was very young.
"I keep thinking about what you said.
That you didn't trust Madison.
That you knew something was wrong."
"Nathan—"
"I'm not angry at you.
I just keep thinking — if I had listened.
If I had asked you one real question instead of assuming you were jealous, or dramatic, or whatever I told myself." He stopped.
"I wasted two years."
"You loved someone," I said.
"That's not waste."
He was quiet for a long time.
"Roy is filing the response to Hargrove and Marsh today," he said finally.
"The bank complaint is already in process.
The Alderton Road transaction is frozen pending investigation." He exhaled.
"Daniel Reyes has been reported to the real estate licensing board for facilitating a transaction with disputed funds."
"And Madison?"
"Her attorney contacted Roy this morning.
She wants to negotiate."
"Of course she does."
"Roy told them Nathan would not be negotiating informally.
Any resolution goes through the court." A pause.
"She's not going to get the house.
She's not going to keep the money.
Roy says the fraud case is straightforward."
"What about the texts she threatened you with?"
"Her attorney hasn't produced them.
Roy thinks she was bluffing." He paused.
"Or they exist and she knows they won't hold up."
I sat in the car outside my mother's house and looked at the front door, still closed.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"Now we wait for the legal process," he said.
"And I figure out how to talk to Mom."
"Give yourself time."
"Yeah." Another pause.
"Claire."
"Yeah."
"Thank you for going there today.
Even knowing what she might say to you."
I looked at the house.
"She's still our mother," I said.
"I know."
"That doesn't make what she did acceptable."
"No," he said.
"It doesn't."
May you like
We stayed on the phone for another minute without talking, the way we used to when we were kids and one of us had called the other just to not be alone.
Then he said he had to go, and I drove home.
