“He did,” Lauren said quietly. “He made sure.”
“He tried,” I said. “But you’re here. At two in the morning. In my kitchen.”
She looked up at me with red eyes.
“There’s something else,” she said. “Something I didn’t tell you on the phone.”
I waited.
“Back in May, Dad asked to borrow money. He said it was for a deposit on a new apartment. Eight thousand dollars.” She twisted her hands together. “I gave it to him. It was most of my savings. He said he’d pay me back by September.”
“Did he?”
She shook her head.
“When I asked about it in August, he said things were tight. That’s when he started telling me about the condo and the landlord and Vanessa’s credit.” She swallowed hard. “Mom, I think the eight thousand was for the moving truck. And the storage unit. And—I don’t know. Whatever he was planning.”
