Fear.
Dad saw it too.
“How much?” Dad asked again.
I swallowed.
“About fourteen thousand dollars.”
Dad’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Fourteen thousand?”
“Over the last year.”
Ryan stepped forward.
“It wasn’t stolen.”
Dad looked at him.
“No?”
“I was helping my mother.”
“With whose money?”
Ryan didn’t answer.
Dad nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Ben suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Mommy?”
I turned immediately.
“Yes, baby?”
“Can Grandpa stay?”
Dad’s expression softened.
“For a little while.”
Ben smiled.
Then he looked at the refrigerator.
“Can I have cereal?”
My eyes filled with tears.
Dad noticed.
He walked over to Ben and crouched down.
“How about we go buy whatever cereal you want?”
Ben’s face lit up.
“The stars?”
“The stars.”
“And strawberry yogurt?”
Dad looked at me.
I couldn’t speak.
He smiled at Ben.
“Especially strawberry yogurt.”
That was the moment I stopped pretending.
Not because my husband had been caught.
