Chapter 6 – The House Evelyn Wouldn’t Lose

“Because it belonged to my mother.”

Evelyn said the words without looking up.

Marcus stood beside the desk.

“Your mother owned Hart House Holdings?”

“She owned the property. The company was established to manage it.”

Katie looked confused.

“What property?”

Evelyn’s expression changed.

For the first time that evening, she looked less like the impeccably dressed woman who had ordered Katie out of the dining room and more like somebody who hadn’t slept properly in months.

“A house on Bluefield Lane,” she said.

Marcus frowned.

“The one you grew up in?”

“Yes.”

“I thought your mother sold it.”

“She almost did.”

Marcus glanced at the statement.

“Forty-two thousand dollars?”

Evelyn clasped her hands.

“My mother had fallen behind on the mortgage and property taxes. There were medical bills. The bank had started foreclosure proceedings.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did tell you she was having trouble.”

“You told me she needed help finding a smaller apartment.”

“Because I knew what you would say.”

“What would I have said?”

“That I couldn’t keep rescuing a house.”

Marcus was silent.

Evelyn looked at Katie.

“My mother lived there for forty-six years. My father left us in that house. I was sixteen when I started working weekends to help her keep the lights on.”

Katie lowered her eyes.

“I didn’t know.”

“No,” Evelyn said. “You wouldn’t.”

The resentment in her voice returned.

“You had a room waiting for you here. Someone who paid your bills. Someone who remembered your birthday. I spent half my childhood listening to my mother decide which bill she could afford not to pay.”

Marcus sat down.

“Evelyn, I offered to help with your mother’s care.”

“You offered to pay for nurses. You offered to find her a comfortable place.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t understand that she wanted her own home.”

Marcus studied her.

“Then you should have told me that. We could have discussed it.”

“And if you’d said no?”

“I might have. Depending on the situation.”

Evelyn gave a bitter little smile.

“Exactly.”

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Katie asked the question I was thinking.

“Did you use my education money to save the house?”

Evelyn’s face tightened.

“I moved funds temporarily. I intended to replace them.”

“With what?”

“Money from my own accounts.”

Katie looked down at the statement.

“You were going to replace forty-two thousand dollars?”

“Yes.”

“Did you?”

Evelyn didn’t answer.

Katie looked at Marcus.

“Dad, please don’t make her answer because you’re angry. I want to know.”

Marcus nodded.

He turned toward Evelyn.

“Answer Katie.”

“Not immediately.”

“When?”

“I was working on it.”

Katie’s voice was very quiet.

“While I was paying you?”

Evelyn looked at her.

“I never intended for you to suffer.”

Katie gave a small laugh that contained no amusement.

“Then you weren’t paying attention.”

She sat back.

I could see her trying to put the pieces together.

The debt list.

The canceled tuition payment.

The birthday cake.

The agreement forbidding her from calling Marcus her father.

All those separate humiliations were beginning to look like parts of the same decision.

Marcus noticed it too.

“Evelyn, why did you tell Katie she owed me exactly the amount you transferred?”

She stared at the desk.

“There were legitimate expenses associated with raising her.”

“Those expenses were never debts.”

“That was your interpretation.”

“She was a child.”

“She was twenty-one when repayment began.”

Marcus leaned forward.

“You don’t get to turn a child’s history into an invoice on her twenty-first birthday.”

Evelyn looked exhausted.

“I’m not going to convince either of you tonight.”

Katie stood.

“There’s something I need to say.”

Marcus looked up.

She faced Evelyn.

“I understand what it’s like to be afraid of losing a home.”

Evelyn’s expression softened slightly.

Katie continued.

“I lost my mom’s apartment when she died. I lost my grandmother’s house when she got sick. I was eleven when I came here, and I spent months sleeping with my shoes beside the bed because I thought somebody might tell me to leave again.”

Marcus lowered his head.

Katie’s voice stayed steady.

“You could have told me you needed help.”

Evelyn stared at her.

“I didn’t need your charity.”

“It wouldn’t have been charity. I would have tried to help.”

The simplicity of the statement seemed to unsettle Evelyn more than anger would have.

Katie picked up her purse.

“But you didn’t ask me. You made me feel like I wasn’t worth what it cost to keep me.”

Evelyn looked away.

I went to retrieve Katie’s coat.

When I returned, Marcus was standing beside the study door.

“Can I see you tomorrow?” he asked Katie.

She hesitated.

“I have the afternoon off.”

“Would you come for lunch?”

She looked at the floor.

“Will Evelyn be here?”

Marcus glanced toward his fiancée.

“That will be Evelyn’s decision.”

Evelyn stood.

“Marcus, don’t start making arrangements as though I’m a stranger in my own home.”

He looked at her.

“This is my daughter’s home too.”

Katie’s eyes filled.

She quickly brushed them dry.

“I’ll come for lunch,” she said.

Marcus walked her to the front hall.

I stayed behind to collect the statements.

Evelyn remained at the desk, staring at the empty chair.

For a moment, she looked utterly alone.

Then she spoke.

“You think I’m a monster.”

I shook my head.

“I think you did something cruel.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Yes, ma’am. But Katie still had to live through it.”

Evelyn looked toward the hallway.

“You know, Marcus wasn’t always so available to her.”

“I don’t know much about their past.”

“He missed things. Important things. And when Katie was hurt, she came to me.”

I waited.

Evelyn looked down at the binder.

“That’s how it started.”

Before I could ask what she meant, she closed the folder.

I began stacking the loose pages.

One slipped beneath the desk.

When I bent to retrieve it, I noticed a payment record printed on the reverse.

It contained a deposit dated almost three years earlier, several months before Katie said she began making payments.

The amount was $2,000.

The account reference was Katie’s education reserve.

I turned the sheet over.

Then I noticed the name of the person listed as the depositor.

It wasn’t Katie.

It wasn’t Evelyn.

It was Marcus DeLuca.

When Marcus returned to the study, I handed him the page.

“Sir, I think you should see this.”

He read it.

His expression became puzzled.

“I remember this deposit.”

Katie had already told us she hadn’t started making payments until months later.

Marcus looked again at the date.

Then he said something I hadn’t expected.

“I put this money in because Evelyn told me Katie had lost her job.”

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