Chapter 1 - The Number That Changed Their Faces
I looked at the phone in my hand.
Lucy was still gripping my shirt.
My mother was standing between us and the door.
Brianna hadn't moved since dropping her wine glass.
Three people were looking at me, but only one of them looked afraid of losing me.
The other two looked afraid of losing something else.
Money.
I unlocked my phone.
Theresa lifted her chin.
“If you're calling the police, Nathan, you're making a terrible mistake.”
“I’m not calling the police.”
Brianna glanced at our mother.
For just a second, relief passed between them.
I saw it.
I wanted to remember it.
Then I opened the email I had received two days earlier in Calgary.
The subject line was still sitting at the top of my inbox.
FINAL SETTLEMENT APPROVAL.
I held the screen where Theresa could see it.
“There’s something I didn't tell anybody.”
My mother's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The company had a safety case.”
Nobody spoke.
“Three years ago, the press line I worked on malfunctioned. You remember when I told you I burned my arm?”
Theresa nodded slowly.
I looked at the scars.
“The machine should have been shut down months earlier. Management knew. Several workers got hurt. Lawyers got involved.”
Brianna's eyes dropped toward the phone.
I kept my voice calm.
“My claim was settled this week.”
Theresa suddenly forgot about blocking the door.
“How much?”
Not Are you okay?
Not Were you badly hurt?
Not Why didn't you tell us?
How much.
That was the first thing she asked.
I looked straight at her.
“One million, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Silence.
Even Lucy looked up at me.
Brianna's mouth opened.
Theresa's entire face changed.
It happened so fast it was almost impressive.
Her shoulders softened.
Her angry mouth relaxed.
The same woman who had been telling my sick wife she deserved to starve suddenly looked like somebody's gentle grandmother.
“My God,” she whispered. “Nathan.”
She stepped toward me.
I stepped around her.
“Hospital first.”
“Of course.”
Theresa's voice was suddenly honey.
“Of course, sweetheart. Lucy obviously needs attention.”
Lucy went stiff against me.
She heard it too.
The transformation.
Five minutes earlier, doctors were a waste of money.
Now that there was over a million dollars on the table, Lucy's health suddenly mattered.
Brianna bent down and started picking up the broken wine glass.
“We can all talk about this calmly.”
I looked at her new dress.
“I'm calm.”
“That’s what I mean.”
She gave a nervous laugh.
“You’ve just walked into a confusing situation. You don't know everything that’s happened while you were gone.”
“I know enough to take my wife to the hospital.”
Theresa reached for Lucy.
“Let me help.”
Lucy recoiled so hard she nearly fell.
I caught her.
“No.”
My mother froze.
I lifted Lucy into my arms.
She weighed less than the bags of metal scraps I carried at work.
That thought made something inside my chest burn.
Four years.
I had spent four years telling myself the loneliness was worth it because Lucy was safe.
Every night shift.
Every frozen bus ride.
Every meal eaten beside a vending machine.
Every Christmas video call where Theresa told me the family was doing well.
I had been buying granite countertops while my wife slept in a shed.
Lucy whispered against my neck.
“Nathan, I'm sorry.”
I stopped walking.
“For what?”
Her eyes filled.
“For being sick.”
I stared at her.
Then I looked at Theresa.
My mother looked away.
That told me everything.
Somebody had taught Lucy to apologize for having cancer.
I carried her through the house.
The place barely resembled the home I remembered.
New hardwood.
New lighting.
New kitchen appliances.
A television so large it covered almost an entire wall.
Leather sofas.
A glass dining table.
Framed photographs of Theresa and Brianna were everywhere.
There was only one photograph of Lucy.
Our wedding picture.
It had been moved onto a shelf behind the television.
Half hidden.
Outside, a white SUV sat in the driveway.
The temporary registration sticker was still in the corner of the windshield.
I opened the passenger door of the rental car I'd picked up at the airport and carefully placed Lucy inside.
Theresa followed.
“Nathan.”
I turned.
Her voice was gentle.
Almost maternal again.
“We've had problems. All families have problems.”
I said nothing.
“You've been gone a long time. Lucy became difficult.”
Lucy lowered her head.
Theresa continued.
“She accused us of things. She became irrational because of the medication.”
“What medication?”
Theresa hesitated.
Exactly one second.
Too long.
“I don't know the names.”
“You've been taking care of my wife for eleven months and you can't name one medicine she's taking?”
Brianna appeared behind her.
“Mom isn't a doctor.”
“No.”
I nodded.
“She isn't.”
I got into the driver's seat.
Theresa grabbed the open door.
“What about the settlement?”
There it was again.
I looked at her fingers gripping the door.
“What about it?”
She smiled nervously.
“Well, obviously we need to discuss how to protect it.”
“Protect it from what?”
“Taxes. Bad investments. People who suddenly appear when they hear you have money.”
Her eyes briefly moved toward Lucy.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I nodded thoughtfully.
“You might be right.”
Theresa brightened.
“I am right.”
“I've been away for four years. Maybe I'm not thinking clearly.”
“Exactly.”
Brianna came closer.
“And you need people you can trust.”
I looked from my mother to my sister.
“Family.”
Theresa smiled.
“Family.”
I nodded once.
“Then we'll talk.”
“When?”
“After I know whether my wife is dying.”
Theresa's smile disappeared.
I shut the door.
During the drive, Lucy barely spoke.
She leaned against the window with both hands in her lap.
At the first red light, I reached over and touched her fingers.
She flinched.
Not because I hurt her.
Because she wasn't used to being touched gently anymore.
I had to look away.
“Lucy.”
“Yes?”
“How long have you been sleeping in the shed?”
She swallowed.
“Seven months.”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“I tried calling you from the clinic.”
“What happened?”
“Your mother took my phone.”
My stomach dropped.
“She said you couldn't concentrate at work if I kept upsetting you.”
Lucy wiped her cheek.
“Later, she gave it back. But she had changed something. Your number wouldn't connect.”
I remembered months of failed calls.
Bad internet.
Dead battery.
Weak signal.
All the excuses.
“Why didn't you email?”
“I did.”
I turned toward her.
“I never got anything.”
“I sent twelve.”
My skin went cold.
“From your account?”
She nodded.
“I don't know where they went.”
I did.
Or at least I was beginning to understand.
Someone had access to more than my money.
At the hospital entrance, I pulled into the emergency lane.
A nurse brought a wheelchair when she saw Lucy struggling.
Within minutes, they took her behind the doors.
I stood there alone under fluorescent lights.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Brianna.
We should probably start planning what to do with the settlement. Mom thinks paying off the house first makes sense. Call me.
Another message arrived.
Also, my salon is doing really well. With a small investment I could open a second location. This could change all our lives.
I stared at the screen.
Lucy had not been inside the emergency department for fifteen minutes.
And they were already dividing the money.
I took a screenshot.
Then I opened the voice recorder.
It had been running since the backyard.
Thirty-two minutes.
Every word.
Every accusation.
Every mention of my transfers.
Every time Theresa said she decided where my money went.
I saved the recording.
But I knew one recording wouldn't be enough.
People like Theresa and Brianna knew how to lie when cornered.
What they weren't good at was resisting temptation.
So I typed one message to both of them.
Don't make any plans yet. The money should clear soon. I think you're right that family should benefit. We'll discuss everything after Lucy is stable.
The three dots appeared almost immediately.
Theresa answered first.
That's my son. We'll fix everything together.
I stared at those words.
Then I looked through the emergency-room doors where my wife had disappeared.
They thought the million dollars was going to save them.
They had no idea I had just turned it into bait.
May you like
And for the first time since walking through that gate, I knew exactly what I was going to do.
I was going to let them get greedy.
