I jumped.
Rebecca did too.
Daniel immediately stepped back.
His face collapsed.
He looked ashamed of himself.
But the anger remained.
“You knew enough to hide it,” he said. “You knew enough to move it through another account. You knew enough to lie about the Cabo trip.”
“I didn’t lie about everything.”
“Did points pay for the hotel?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did Ethan’s money pay the rest?”
Rebecca looked down.
“Yes.”
Daniel turned away.
He walked to the sink.
For several seconds, his back remained toward us.
Then we heard footsteps overhead.
The stairs.
Ethan appeared first.
Lily followed.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I told you to stay upstairs.”
Ethan looked at the phone in his father’s hand.
“You checked Lily’s.”
It wasn’t a question.
Nobody answered.
Lily stared at her mother.
“How much is gone?”
Rebecca stood.
“Sweetheart—”
“Don’t.”
Lily stepped backward.
I had never heard her speak to her mother like that.
“Just tell me.”
“You still have money.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Rebecca began moving toward her.
Lily moved away.
“You said I didn’t understand finances.”
Her voice shook.
“I understand taking something that isn’t yours.”
Rebecca’s face crumpled.
“I’m your mother.”
“Then why did you take it?”
The question was so simple that it left nowhere to hide.
Rebecca tried anyway.
“I used it for our family.”
Ethan laughed once.
Coldly.
“For the family?”
He pointed around the kitchen.
“I didn’t ask for this.”
“The house belongs to all of us.”
“I didn’t ask for Cabo either.”
“You enjoyed Cabo.”
Ethan recoiled as if she had struck him.
“So that makes it okay?”
“No, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re saying because I went on a vacation I thought you paid for, I agreed to spend my college fund?”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“It’s what you’re trying to say.”
Daniel turned around.
“Ethan.”
“No, Dad.”
His eyes were red now.
“You told me I could apply anywhere that made sense because Grandma and Grandpa had helped.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I know.”
“You told me not to worry yet.”
