Chapter 2 - THE MONEY EVERYONE CALLED BRADLEY’S
Fifteen minutes later, Maddie was locked inside the upstairs primary bedroom with a towel around her shoulders and her suitcase open on the bed.
Bradley had knocked twice.
Then six times.
Then he had stopped being apologetic.
“You can’t cancel that transfer over a stupid pool joke.”
Maddie zipped her suitcase.
“Watch me.”
The $92,000 was supposed to be the final cash contribution toward a two-unit vacation property three miles from the lake.
Bradley called it the Mercer family’s second chance.
Barbara would use the downstairs unit several months a year. The upstairs would become a short-term rental managed by Bradley and his cousins.
Maddie had agreed because the numbers Bradley showed her looked reasonable.
More importantly, she had believed the property would belong partly to her.
She was contributing almost all of the cash.
The closing was scheduled for Monday afternoon.
The transfer had been scheduled from a brokerage account Maddie had built before she married Bradley.
It contained money earned during twelve years at a Chicago event-production company, where Maddie had started as an assistant carrying floral crates and eventually become a regional operations director.
Bradley contributed what he described as “sweat equity.”
For months he had promised that once the Lake Geneva place started producing income, he would stop needing Maddie to carry so much of their life.
Their mortgage in Wheaton.
Their health insurance.
Most groceries.
Bradley’s truck payment during slow months.
Barbara’s emergency property-tax payment the previous winter.
Bradley hated anyone saying Maddie supported him.
He hated it so much that at family gatherings he often picked up the check with a credit card whose balance Maddie quietly paid later.
Maddie had allowed it.
That was the part she could no longer avoid.
Downstairs, Barbara’s voice rose.
“She can reschedule it tomorrow.”
Then Bradley:
“You don’t understand.”
Barbara answered much more quietly.
“I understand exactly what happens Monday without it.”
Maddie stopped packing.
She walked toward the bedroom door but did not open it.
Bradley said, “Then make her calm down.”
Barbara replied, “I told you not to push her tonight.”
Not I told you not to push her into the pool.
Not What you did was disgusting.
I told you not to push her tonight.
May you like
Maddie looked down at her phone.
The canceled transfer suddenly felt like the smallest thing she needed to understand.
