Chapter 4: Before She Does
Andrew stared at the screen for a long moment.
Then he set the phone face-up on the table so I could read it.
*We need to talk.
Before she does.*
I read it twice.
"He knows she's here," I said.
"He's known the whole time."
"He's worried about what she's going to tell you."
Andrew looked at me.
"Or what she already told you."
I thought about that.
Kayla had been on the phone with Daniel less than ten minutes ago.
She had told him things went sideways.
She had told him Andrew recorded her.
She had not, as far as I could tell, told him what I'd heard from the hallway — because she didn't know I'd heard it.
Daniel was trying to get to Andrew first.
"Don't answer it," I said.
"I wasn't going to."
"Not yet.
Not until we know what we're actually dealing with."
Andrew nodded slowly.
He picked up the phone and turned it face-down again.
Upstairs, we could hear Kayla moving around.
The sound of drawers opening and closing.
The zip of a suitcase.
"Two months," I said again.
"I know."
"She called me crying, Andrew.
I sat on the phone with her for forty minutes.
She said she had nowhere to go.
I told her she could stay as long as she needed." I stopped.
"Was any of it real?
The breakup, the money — was any of it true?"
"I don't know yet."
"But you have a theory."
He was quiet for a moment.
"Daniel has been restless.
That's the word my mother uses.
He's had three jobs in two years.
He borrowed money from my father last spring — a significant amount — and he hasn't paid it back." He paused.
"He's always looked at what I have and kept a running count."
I looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means I don't think this was about you and me." He said it carefully, like he was still deciding if he believed it.
"I think this was about something else.
And Kayla was either part of it or she was used by it."
"What something else?"
Before he could answer, his phone buzzed again.
He flipped it over.
Another text from Daniel.
*I'm outside.*
We both looked toward the front of the house.
Andrew stood up.
"Andrew —"
"I'm not going to hide in my own kitchen." He was already moving toward the front door.
I followed him.
Through the narrow window beside the door I could see Daniel's car parked at the curb.
He was leaning against the driver's side door with his hands in his jacket pockets, looking at the house.
When Andrew opened the front door, Daniel straightened up and walked toward us with that easy, familiar stride, the same one he'd always had, the one that said everything was fine and he was just stopping by.
He made it halfway up the front path before he registered my face and slowed down.
"Hey." He looked between us.
"Can we talk inside?"
"Here is fine," Andrew said.
Daniel glanced at me again.
"It might be better if —"
"Here," Andrew said, "is fine."
Daniel stopped at the bottom of the porch steps.
He pushed his hands deeper into his pockets and looked up at his brother with an expression that was working very hard to stay relaxed.
"I know how this looks," he said.
"Tell me how it looks."
"Kayla and I have been talking.
That's all it is.
We met at your birthday dinner last year — you remember, she came with your in-laws — and we just kept in touch.
It wasn't planned."
"She came to stay in my house," Andrew said.
"That was planned."
"That was her idea.
I didn't ask her to do that."
"But you knew she was going to."
A pause.
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell me."
Daniel looked down at the step.
"I didn't think it would become a thing."
"A thing," Andrew repeated.
"Andrew, come on.
Nothing happened.
She stayed in your guest room.
I wasn't even here."
"Why did you text me just now?"
Daniel looked up.
"Because I knew she'd make it sound like more than it was."
"More than what was?"
Another pause, longer this time.
Daniel's easy manner was thinning at the edges.
Underneath it was something that looked a lot like calculation.
"We've been talking about going into business together," he said finally.
"Kayla and me.
A property investment.
Small scale.
I needed a co-signer for the initial financing and she said she might be able to help.
That's it.
That's the whole thing."
I felt Andrew go still beside me.
"A co-signer," he said.
"It's a small deal.
Very low risk."
"And what does a co-signer need to provide?"
Daniel's eyes moved to me briefly, then back to Andrew.
"Just a signature.
And access to a joint account to demonstrate —"
"Whose joint account, Daniel."
The question landed like a door closing.
Daniel didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
I looked at Andrew.
Andrew was looking at his brother with an expression I had never seen before and hoped never to see directed at me.
"She was in my house for two weeks," Andrew said quietly.
"In my kitchen.
Around my things.
Around my wife." He stopped.
"Was she looking for something?"
Daniel said nothing.
Upstairs, a window opened.
We all looked up.
Kayla was leaning out of the guest room window, looking down at the three of us on the porch.
Her face, when she saw Daniel standing there, did something complicated.
"You came," she said.
May you like
And she didn't sound relieved.
She sounded afraid.
