Then stopped.
Ethan looked at me.
“Why not?”
“Because Lauren already agreed to come to dinner tomorrow.”
I glanced at all the records scattered across the table.
“If I warn Kyle tonight, she gets almost twenty-four hours to come up with an explanation.”
“So?”
“Tomorrow night, she can explain everything with the evidence sitting directly in front of her.”
Ethan studied me.
“You still want me there?”
I looked down at the photograph.
“More than ever.”
Before I left, I printed copies of Mom’s transfers.
Ethan added his old messages and payment records.
By the time I closed the folder, Lauren’s past and my mother’s missing money were sitting side by side.
The following evening, Lauren arrived at seven.
She looked completely comfortable.
She sat beside Kyle, smiling as though nothing in the world could affect her.
I brought coffee to the table.
Then the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.”
I opened the door.
Ethan stood outside holding the folder.
The moment Lauren saw him, all the color drained from her face.
“What is he doing here?”
Kyle frowned.
“You know him?”
Lauren ignored the question.
“Who invited him?”
She looked directly at me.
Then panic crossed her face.
“Get him out.”
Nobody moved.
“I said get him out! He has no right to be here.”
Ethan calmly walked over to the table and placed the folder in front of Kyle.
Kyle opened it.
First came Mom’s banking records.
Then Ethan’s screenshots.
Finally, the photograph.
The one labeled Laura.
Kyle slowly turned toward his wife.
“What is this?”
I answered before Lauren could.
“Ask her where Mom’s five thousand dollars actually went.”
Lauren immediately regained some of her composure.
“Marisol handled some of the repair work. Rachel doesn’t understand what she’s looking at.”
Kyle looked at her. “Then explain it.”
“There’s nothing to explain.”
She pointed toward me.
“Rachel has always hated me, and now she conveniently appears with my ex-boyfriend?”
“Fiancé,” Ethan said quietly.
Lauren’s eyes immediately snapped toward him.
I pulled out another screenshot.
“Marisol asked Ethan for money two years before your accident,” I said. “She told him you already owed her.”
Lauren’s expression shifted.
“So what? I owed her money.”
Mom looked stunned.
“You told me that payment was for your vehicle.”
Lauren said nothing.
