Chapter 2 - THE GUESTS WHO BROUGHT NO RETURN DATE
Teresa and Frank arrived before noon with fourteen boxes, five suitcases, a folding walker, and a plastic pill organizer large enough to cover an entire week.
David had arranged a moving company in advance.
Eleanor stood on the front steps as two workers carried a recliner into her foyer.
“Where is the rest of your furniture?” she asked.
“Sold,” Teresa replied. “The condo buyer wanted a quick closing.”
“You sold your home?”
“David handled it.”
Frank lowered his voice. “He said you knew.”
Eleanor turned toward him. “Knew what?”
Teresa stepped between them.
“We cannot stand outside discussing private finances. Your father-in-law needs to sit down.”
Inside, Teresa immediately criticized the guest room, the mattress height, and the distance to the upstairs bathroom. Frank settled into the recliner with his hands folded over the pill case.
Eleanor checked David’s flight using the itinerary he had forwarded two days earlier.
The confirmation number did not work.
She called the airline. After verifying that she was not entitled to private passenger information, the agent confirmed only that the reservation code did not belong to their system.
The document David had sent her was not a valid ticket.
At 1:17 p.m., he finally called.
“What did you do to the cards?”
Eleanor walked into her office and shut the door.
“Where are you?”
“At the airport.”
“Which one?”
A pause.
“My connection changed.”
“The charge was in Midtown.”
David exhaled sharply. “Lila and I had to meet the Asia team before departure.”
Eleanor went still.
“Lila?”
“You’ve met her. She’s the brand strategy director.”
Eleanor remembered a blonde woman at the Northbridge holiday party, twenty-nine at most, laughing too loudly at David’s stories.
“You bought her a fifteen-thousand-dollar diamond?”
“It’s a client gift.”
“With my card?”
“It’s our money.”
“No. It’s a card attached to an account I opened before I married you.”
His voice hardened.
“Unfreeze them. I can’t travel without access.”
“Come home and explain it.”
“I can’t.”
“Then travel on your own money.”
He hung up.
Eleanor opened their joint checking account.
Twenty-eight thousand dollars had been transferred three days earlier to an account labeled HAYES RELOCATION SERVICES.
She did not own such a company.
Behind her, Frank tapped softly on the door.
“David said you’d be upset at first,” he said. “But he also said you signed the caregiver affidavit.”
“What affidavit?”
Frank looked toward the staircase, making sure Teresa was not nearby.
“The one that says we depend on you financially while he’s overseas.”
Eleanor had never signed anything.
May you like
Frank reached into the pocket of his robe and handed her a folded blue page.
At the bottom was Eleanor’s name in an electronic signature she had never used.
