Chapter 9 - MELISSAMelissa asked to speak alone.
I nearly refused.
Then remembered she had been using my card.
So yes.
She sat across from me in the same dining room where the kibble had landed.
Max’s bowl had been moved into a cardboard box.
She looked at it once.
Then away.
“I found out about Eli four years ago.”
“How?”
“A payment.”
“April?”
“Yes.”
“What did Brian tell you?”
“Everything eventually.”
“Did you consider leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She took time.
“Because I loved him. Because it happened before our marriage. Because Eli existed whether I left or not.”
Reasonable.
Then:
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Brian begged me not to.”
“That is not enough.”
“I know.”
“Why use my card?”
Her face flushed.
“We were short.”
“You were living here without rent.”
“We still had the condo loan, franchise debt, legal fees from closing the business.”
“So you stole from me?”
Nina had told me not to use that word casually.
I corrected:
“You spent my money outside what I authorized.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Why hide the merchant?”
“Because you asked Brian.”
“And he lied.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
I leaned back.
“Then at my birthday you recorded him serving me dog food because I wasn’t contributing.”
Melissa started crying.
That was the first time I became truly cold.
Not rage.
Cold.
“You knew my card was paying for Eli every month.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I paid the house.”
“Yes.”
“You knew you were living here without rent.”
“Yes.”
“Then why participate in that?”
Her answer was ugly.
“Brian said you needed to understand how much we did for you.”
I stared.
“And you believed him?”
“Partly.”
“No.”
She looked up.
“No?”
“You may have believed I was ungrateful. You did not believe I was a freeloader.”
Silence.
“That was humiliation.”
She lowered her head.
“Yes.”
Better.
May you like
Not good.
Better.
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