Chapter 2 - What Maya Saw
Andre turned toward Simone.
“What did she see?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn't a question for you.”
Maya stood barefoot at the edge of the kitchen.
Her hands disappeared into the sleeves of her cream hoodie.
Andre crouched.
“Maya.”
Her eyes remained on Simone.
Andre noticed.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, Maya did.
“You are not in trouble.”
Her lips trembled.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Behind him, Simone said, “Andre, she doesn't understand what she saw.”
He raised one hand without looking back.
“Stop talking.”
It was the first time Noah and Kayla had ever heard Andre speak to their mother that way.
The entire room went silent.
Maya whispered, “I saw Mom—”
She corrected herself.
“Simone.”
Andre felt that change like a blade.
“Doing what?”
“In your office.”
“When?”
“When you went to Dallas.”
Three weeks earlier.
Andre remembered the trip.
“What happened?”
“I needed paper for school.”
Maya swallowed.
“She was at your desk with that phone.”
She pointed toward the black smartphone.
“And somebody was on the computer.”
“Somebody?”
“A man.”
Simone closed her eyes.
Andre stood.
“Who?”
Maya looked frightened again.
“I don't know.”
“Did you see his face?”
She nodded.
“He came here before.”
Andre's thoughts raced.
“Who, sweetheart?”
“The man Noah calls his other dad.”
Darren Cole.
Simone's ex-husband.
Noah stared at his mother.
“Dad was here?”
Simone immediately answered.
“No.”
Maya flinched.
Andre caught it.
He turned to Simone.
“Don't answer another question.”
“This is my house too.”
“Then you should have remembered that before hiding a phone in my kitchen.”
Andre returned his attention to Maya.
“What were they doing?”
“There were papers.”
“What kind?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you remember anything written on them?”
Maya squeezed her eyes shut.
Andre waited.
Finally she said, “Bennett.”
His company.
Bennett Property Restoration.
Andre owned the Atlanta-based firm he had spent fourteen years building.
“What else?”
“There were numbers.”
Simone spoke again.
“She walked in for five seconds.”
Andre ignored her.
Maya continued.
“Darren said you wouldn't notice.”
Andre's stomach dropped.
“What wouldn't I notice?”
“I don't know.”
She started crying.
“I didn't understand.”
Andre immediately stopped questioning her.
“Okay. That's enough.”
“But—”
“You don't have to remember everything tonight.”
Maya wiped her face.
Andre looked at Noah.
“Do you know why your mother gave you that key?”
Noah looked down.
“She didn't give it to me.”
Simone's head snapped toward him.
Andre noticed.
“Then how did you get it?”
“I took it.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Noah's voice became smaller.
“I heard Mom and Dad arguing.”
Andre's eyes narrowed.
“Darren was here yesterday?”
Noah nodded.
Simone's face had lost all color.
“What did they argue about?”
“I couldn't hear everything.”
Noah began crying.
“But Mom said Maya was supposed to be gone before you checked the company.”
Andre turned toward Simone.
“What company?”
She said nothing.
“What company, Simone?”
Still nothing.
Andre looked at the hidden phone.
Then another possibility hit him.
He opened his own phone and logged into Bennett Property Restoration's accounting dashboard.
He traveled frequently, but his company had an internal finance team.
Simone did occasional bookkeeping from home.
Nothing significant.
At least that was what he had believed.
He checked recent vendor payments.
Cole Facility Solutions.
Darren's company.
Andre frowned.
He knew they used Darren occasionally for subcontracted cleanup jobs.
Then he saw the total paid over the previous eight months.
$186,420.
Andre stopped.
That was far more than he remembered approving.
Simone saw the number on his screen.
“Andre—”
He looked at her.
“How much money did you send him?”
“It isn't what you think.”
“That sentence has never once been followed by good news.”
“Andre, please.”
He opened several invoices.
Some were for properties he recognized.
Others weren't.
One listed a commercial restoration project in Decatur.
Andre knew the project.
His company had never hired Darren there.
Another invoice claimed twenty-seven workers had completed emergency cleanup.
Andre remembered that job too.
They had used their own employees.
Not Darren.
He looked up.
“How long?”
Simone began crying.
Andre held the hidden phone toward her.
“How long have you and Darren been stealing from my company?”
Noah's face crumpled.
“My dad steals?”
Andre immediately regretted saying it in front of him.
Simone seized the opportunity.
“Look what you're doing to the children.”
Andre stared at her.
For a second, guilt almost pulled him backward.
Then Maya spoke.
“She always says that.”
Andre turned.
Maya's eyes remained on the floor.
“She does bad things.”
Maya swallowed.
“Then she says somebody else made everyone sad.”
Andre looked at Simone.
May you like
And for the first time, he understood that his eight-year-old daughter had recognized something he had missed for years.
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