My phone on the end table buzzed, the screen lighting up with Caleb’s name.
I answered on the third ring, keeping my voice level. “Hello, Caleb.”
“Hey, babe,” his loud, booming voice filled the quiet living room. “Just checking in on my two favorite girls. How are the ankles?”
“Swollen,” I said, looking down at the tablet. “But I’m resting.”
“Good, good. Mom was saying we should have left you more frozen meals, but you know how she is. She wants to make sure you stay active so the labor goes easy.”
“She mentioned the baseboards,” I said.
“Well, just do what you can, babe. We’re sitting by the resort pool right now. Brooke found this high-end boutique down the street and she’s already going wild.”
I scrolled down the email thread on the tablet, my eyes landing on an image Brooke had sent of a designer leather handbag.
“Did she buy anything yet?” I asked.
“Oh, just some little leather thing,” Caleb said, his voice dropping slightly. “Nothing major. I’ve got to run, babe, the waiter is coming with our drinks. Love you.”
“Goodbye, Caleb.”
I hung up and returned to the email thread.
“We need to get the transfer set up before she goes into labor,” Brooke had written in an email dated last Tuesday. “Once the baby is here, she won’t be looking at the accounts for months.”
“Mom says once the baby comes, Claire will not have the strength to fight,” Caleb’s reply had come from his work address an hour later.
I rubbed my silver wedding band, spinning the metal round and round against my skin.
The next message from Brooke listed three separate credit card balances, totaling twenty-four thousand dollars.
“The dealer in Columbus needs the wire by Friday,” she had added. “Caleb, please. You promised you’d handle her share of the business.”
I stared at the tablet screen until the blue light began to burn my eyes.
The grandfather clock in the hallway struck midnight, its deep brass chime echoing through the empty rooms of my grandmother’s brick home.
I carried the tablet into the kitchen, where the sharp scent of lemon beeswax polish still hung in the air from my morning cleaning.
