“Ash?”
She looked annoyed rather than ashamed.
“It was going toward expenses.”
“What expenses?”
“Maintenance. Taxes. Improvements.”
“You have never paid my property taxes.”
“We bought the patio set.”
“The patio set cost nine hundred dollars.”
“It was eleven hundred.”
I almost admired the nerve.
Then Ashley finally said the thing beneath all of it.
“Bradley is your only son. Someday this cottage is going to be his anyway.”
Silence.
There it was.
Not the bookings.
Not the money.
Not the forged authorization.
The belief underneath everything.
Someday this is
