Chapter 3 - THE CARD HE HAD ALREADY READ
Elaine did not open the front door.
She switched on the porch light and spoke through the glass.
“Go home.”
Daniel held up the card.
“Mom, we found this after you left.”
Marissa stood with her arms crossed over her pregnant stomach. Her makeup was still perfect, but her eyes were swollen from crying.
“We need to clear this up,” she said.
Elaine looked at the card.
“What does it say?”
Daniel hesitated.
“You know what it says.”
“I asked you to read it.”
Rainwater dripped from his hair onto the collar of his sweater.
He turned the card toward himself.
“Grandpa’s final gift is stitched inside the blanket.”
Elaine watched his face as he read.
Not one word surprised him.
“Where did you find it?” she asked.
“In the tissue paper.”
Marissa looked at him.
“No, you didn’t.”
Daniel’s head snapped toward her.
“Not now.”
She laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“He had it before you opened the gift,” Marissa said.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Marissa.”
“You told me it was just another one of her guilt trips.”
Elaine remained behind the locked door.
“What exactly did he tell you?”
Marissa looked toward the driveway as if deciding whether to leave.
Then she stepped closer to the glass.
“Daniel opened your box before the shower started.”
“That’s a lie,” he said.
“You said you wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything embarrassing inside.”
Daniel grabbed Marissa’s elbow.
She jerked away.
“You read the card,” she continued. “Then you put it in your pocket and told me your mother was going to use some homemade gift to make the party about herself.”
Elaine felt the betrayal settle deeper.
Marissa’s cruelty had been real. Nothing could excuse what she had done.
But Daniel had aimed it.
“You knew something was inside the blanket,” Elaine said.
Daniel shook his head.
“The card didn’t say money.”
“I didn’t ask whether it said money.”
Silence filled the porch.
Marissa turned slowly toward her husband.
“You told me there was nothing important in it.”
“I didn’t know what Dad left.”
“But you knew there was something.”
“I thought it was a letter.”
“You told me to get rid of the blanket.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I told you not to let my mother control the room.”
“You said she would leave it behind if I embarrassed her.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
That was the twist she had not been prepared for.
Her son had not failed to defend her because he was weak.
He had stayed silent because the humiliation was part of his plan.
He wanted Elaine to abandon the blanket. Then, after the guests left, he could retrieve whatever Paul had hidden inside.
The open trash can had not been beside the gift table by accident.
Daniel had placed it there.
Elaine remembered him carrying it from the kitchen before presents were opened. He had said the room needed somewhere for wrapping paper.
“You expected me to walk away without it,” she said.
Daniel moved closer to the door.
“Mom, I made a mistake.”
“You used your wife to degrade me so you could search your dead father’s gift.”
“I was desperate.”
“For what?”
He looked away.
Marissa answered.
“Money.”
Daniel spun toward her.
“Stop talking.”
“No.” Her voice shook. “You told me the betting was over.”
“It is.”
“Then why is a collection agency calling my mother?”
Diane’s headlights appeared at the end of the driveway.
A moment later, her SUV stopped behind Daniel’s car.
She climbed out, holding her beige handbag over her head against the rain.
“What are you two doing?” she demanded. “Marissa, get in my car.”
Daniel blocked his wife from moving.
“This is between me and my mother.”
Diane stopped beside them.
“No, it isn’t. My daughter’s name is on your mortgage.”
Elaine opened the door only far enough to step onto the porch, keeping the chain secured.
“Did you know about the plan?” she asked Diane.
Diane’s face tightened.
“I knew Daniel didn’t want you using the baby to force your way into their lives.”
Elaine almost laughed.
“I spent four months making one blanket.”
“You have never respected their boundaries.”
“My boundary was the edge of a trash can.”
Marissa covered her mouth.
For the first time that day, she looked ashamed.
Daniel held out his hand.
“Give me the envelope.”
Elaine stared at him.
“No.”
“It concerns my child.”
“It protects your child from you.”
His face changed.
The softness vanished.
“You have no right to keep my father’s money.”
“It was your father’s decision.”
“He wasn’t thinking clearly at the end.”
Elaine felt Paul’s letter inside her cardigan pocket.
“He was thinking clearly enough to warn me about your gambling.”
Daniel went still.
Marissa lowered her hand.
“What gambling?”
Elaine saw the moment Daniel understood that his father had left more than money.
He had left the truth.
Elaine shut the door and slid the deadbolt into place.
Through the glass, Daniel began pounding with the side of his fist.
“Mom!”
She walked back to the kitchen.
Behind her, Marissa shouted at him.
Diane demanded answers.
Daniel kept striking the door.
Elaine picked up Paul’s key and called Rebecca Shaw.
May you like
“I’m ready to open the safe-deposit box,” she said.
“And I want my whole family there when we do.”
