Chapter 3 - Aster HoldingsEmily’s father did not shout.
That made everything worse.
He sat behind the desk, one hand resting beside the yellow legal pad.
Claire remained standing.
Emily stood in the doorway.
“Emily,” her father said. “What do you know?”
Claire immediately interrupted.
“She knows nothing.”
He looked at his wife.
“I asked Emily.”
Claire’s mouth closed.
Emily swallowed.
“I saw a business card in your room.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
“You were going through my things?”
“No. Your makeup bag was open on the bathroom counter.”
“That isn’t your bathroom.”
“Claire.”
Her father’s voice cut through them.
Emily continued.
“It said Adrian Mercer. Aster Property Group.”
Her father looked down at the words ASTER HOLDINGS.
“Who is Adrian Mercer?”
Claire laughed without humor.
“A realtor.”
“Why did twenty thousand dollars from Emily’s education account end up with his company?”
“It was an investment.”
Emily’s father stared.
“In what?”
“A property.”
“Which property?”
Claire hesitated again.
Emily was beginning to understand that Claire’s pauses mattered more than her answers.
“Briar Lane.”
“Where?”
“Rye.”
Emily’s father leaned backward.
“You invested twenty thousand dollars of Emily’s school money in real estate without telling me?”
“It was temporary.”
“For whom?”
“For us.”
“Us?”
Claire suddenly became defensive.
“You’re gone constantly. I’ve been trying to figure out how to create something that doesn’t depend on your company.”
“My company?”
“Yes, your company. The thing that gets every hour you have left after work.”
Emily looked at her father.
He seemed hurt.
Not persuaded.
“What property?”
Claire rubbed her temple.
“A small house Adrian found below market.”
“Why is his company holding the money?”
“Earnest money.”
“On a house in whose name?”
Claire said nothing.
Her father stood.
“In whose name, Claire?”
“My name.”
Emily felt her stomach drop.
Her father’s face hardened.
“So it wasn’t for us.”
“I was going to add you later.”
“That isn’t how buying a house works.”
“You don’t know the deal.”
“Apparently I don’t know anything.”
Claire turned away.
Her father looked at the legal pad.
“Seventeen thousand six hundred at retailers.”
Claire remained silent.
“Nine thousand four hundred to a credit card.”
“My card.”
“Five thousand cash.”
“Household expenses.”
“What expenses?”
“I don’t keep receipts for every grocery trip.”
“Five thousand dollars wasn’t groceries.”
Claire suddenly slammed her palm against the desk.
“I said I can explain it!”
Emily flinched.
Her father noticed.
He lowered his own voice.
“Then explain.”
Claire looked at Emily.
“Not with her standing here.”
The words landed differently this time.
Emily’s father glanced at his daughter.
Emily expected him to tell her to go upstairs.
He had done that before.
Adult conversation.
Adult problems.
Not for children.
Instead, he said, “It’s her money.”
Claire stared at him.
“She’s thirteen.”
“And apparently thirteen was old enough for you to tell her she’d do the same anywhere.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you said.”
Claire’s face flushed.
Emily’s father sat again.
He turned to the computer.
“I’m freezing the joint card.”
Claire stepped forward.
“You can’t just financially cut me off.”
“I’m freezing a card until I know where fifty-two thousand dollars went.”
“You gave me access to those accounts.”
“To pay household bills and Emily’s school.”
“Which means I had permission.”
“To spend her education savings on a house I didn’t know existed?”
Claire had no answer.
He opened another banking page.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Emily stepped closer.
Her father stared at the screen.
“Why are there three cash transfers from our main checking account to an account ending in 7719?”
Claire went very still.
“How much?”
He clicked.
“Ten thousand in July. Twelve thousand in August. Nine thousand in September.”
Emily looked at Claire.
Thirty-one thousand dollars.
Claire recovered.
“That’s my brokerage account.”
Her father turned slowly.
“You have a brokerage account?”
“Yes.”
“With thirty-one thousand dollars of our money?”
“Our money.”
“You keep saying that as if it makes secret transfers normal.”
Claire lifted her chin.
“I was protecting myself.”
“From what?”
“You.”
Emily’s father laughed once in disbelief.
“Me?”
“You control everything.”
“No, Claire. I worked. I trusted you to manage bills because you asked to.”
“And I’m supposed to have nothing that belongs to me?”
“You have your own account.”
“Seven thousand dollars.”
“You also have full access to joint funds.”
“Until tonight.”
“Because fifty-two thousand dollars disappeared!”
Claire looked toward Emily.
“This is what she wanted.”
Emily shook her head.
“I wanted to stay in school.”
Something flickered across her father’s face.
He closed the laptop.
That sentence had reached him.
“I’m calling the school tomorrow.”
Claire immediately said, “You don’t need to.”
He looked at her.
“Why not?”
“Because they already agreed to give us more time.”
“You spoke to them?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Claire hesitated.
“Last week.”
Emily stepped forward.
“They emailed me this morning. They said nobody answered them.”
Claire looked at her.
“What email?”
“The final tuition notice.”
Her father’s expression darkened.
“Show me.”
Emily opened her school account on her phone.
There were four messages.
Payment overdue.
Second notice.
Administrative hold warning.
Final notice.
Her father read them silently.
Then he looked at Claire.
“You told me everything was current.”
“It was supposed to be.”
“You told me last Sunday.”
Claire said nothing.
“After you had already emptied the account.”
Silence.
The glowing Halloween lights outside the office changed from orange to purple.
Emily suddenly remembered something else.
“The school called the house twice.”
Both adults looked at her.
“I heard the voicemail.”
Claire’s face changed.
“What voicemail?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Emily stared at her.
“You deleted it.”
Claire did not deny it.
Emily’s father stood.
For the first time, anger replaced shock.
“Did you intercept the school notices?”
Claire backed toward the doorway.
“You’re making this sound insane.”
“Did you?”
“I handled it.”
“No. You hid it.”
Claire turned.
“I’m not doing this all night.”
She walked toward the staircase.
Her husband followed.
“Where are you going?”
“To change.”
Emily watched Claire reach the first step.
Then her father’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He almost ignored it.
Instead, he answered.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
Emily could not hear the words.
But she saw Claire stop on the staircase.
Her father listened.
“Yes. This is he.”
Claire slowly turned around.
His expression became guarded.
“Who is this?”
Another pause.
Then:
“Adrian Mercer?”
Claire closed her eyes.
Adrian said something else.
Emily’s father looked directly at his wife.
“No,” he said into the phone. “Claire never told me she was buying a house.”
Claire whispered, “Hang up.”
Her father kept listening.
Then Adrian said something that made him grip the phone harder.
“What do you mean, you thought we were separated?”
May you like
Claire’s face went white.
And suddenly the missing school money was no longer the most painful lie in the house.
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