Chapter 2 - THE MONEY DANIEL THOUGHT HE WAS GIVING THEM
Daniel drove his parents home.
Rachel remained at the house with Vanessa and several guests.
Daniel regretted the slap before he reached the end of the block.
He did not regret defending his parents.
He did regret losing control.
At sixty-four, Linda still apologized when other people hurt her.
“I shouldn’t have come.”
Daniel looked at her in the rearview mirror.
“Stop.”
“She told us she wanted a small party.”
“She told me you were invited.”
Linda glanced at Robert.
Daniel caught it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Dad?”
Robert looked out the window.
Daniel pulled into their driveway in Silver Spring.
The Bennetts had lived in the same modest brick rambler for thirty-seven years.
Daniel followed them inside.
Linda went to change.
Robert put water on for coffee.
Daniel stayed standing.
“What did Rachel mean?”
Robert opened a cabinet.
“What?”
“She said you should’ve remembered what you agreed.”
His father took down three mugs.
“Ask your wife.”
“I’m asking you.”
Robert sighed.
“Not tonight.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Rachel dumped food over Mom in front of forty people.”
“I noticed.”
“Then stop protecting her.”
That made Robert turn.
“We’ve been protecting you.”
Daniel felt something cold move through him.
“From what?”
Linda returned wearing an old sweatshirt.
“Robert.”
“He’s going to find out.”
Linda sat.
Daniel remained standing.
His mother looked older than she had three hours earlier.
Finally she said, “Do you remember when Rachel started Maison Rue?”
Rachel’s event-design company.
Five years earlier she had left a corporate marketing job to build a luxury event business.
Daniel had supported her.
Maison Rue now handled weddings, corporate retreats, charity galas and private events across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia.
Rachel frequently complained that Daniel’s parents never respected her success.
“Yes.”
Linda folded her hands.
“The first year was difficult.”
“I know.”
“No,” Robert said. “You know the version she told you.”
Daniel looked between them.
“What version?”
Linda spoke quietly.
“She borrowed money from us.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Linda hesitated.
Robert answered.
“Ninety-six thousand dollars.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
“I handled our finances.”
“Rachel had business accounts you didn’t manage.”
Daniel sat down.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“Why?”
“Payroll. Taxes. A vendor dispute. She said the company was three weeks from closing.”
Daniel remembered that year.
Rachel had been exhausted.
She had also told him Maison Rue had landed a huge corporate account that saved the company.
Apparently something else had saved it first.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Linda looked ashamed.
“She begged us not to.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“And you just handed her ninety-six thousand dollars?”
“We loaned it.”
“Did she repay you?”
Again, the look between them.
Daniel felt his stomach tighten.
“Mom.”
Linda said, “Those monthly payments you’ve been sending us.”
Daniel stopped.
For four years, $1,850 had automatically left the Bennett household account every month.
Rachel had described it as family support.
Your parents won’t ask, Daniel. They’re too proud.
He had felt good sending it.
Sometimes guilty that it wasn’t more.
Daniel’s voice became barely audible.
“That isn’t support.”
Robert shook his head.
“It’s repayment.”
Daniel stared at them.
“She told me you needed the money.”
Linda’s eyes filled.
“We told her we hated that.”
“What?”
“She said it was temporary. She said once the loan was repaid, she’d explain everything.”
Daniel calculated quickly.
More than eighty thousand dollars had already been transferred.
He stood.
Rachel had accepted his parents’ money.
Hidden the debt.
Then spent years letting Daniel believe he was supporting them.
Worse, she had allowed her friends and family to believe the same thing.
Suddenly Rachel’s contempt at the party looked different.
It hadn’t been spontaneous embarrassment.
His parents represented something she desperately needed hidden.
Linda said, “Daniel, please don’t do anything tonight.”
He looked at the soup stain still visible near her collar.
“Mom, she poured food over you.”
Linda’s voice broke.
“That isn’t what I’m worried about.”
“What are you worried about?”
She looked at him.
“That she knew exactly how much humiliating us would cost her.”
Daniel went still.
May you like
Linda continued.
“And she did it anyway.”
