Chapter 6 - WHAT PATRICIA SAID WHEN SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS ALONE
Patricia stood beside my kitchen window with a phone to her ear.
“No, he hasn’t convinced her yet.”
Pause.
“I understand the timeline.”
Another pause.
“The house is clean. No mortgage.”
Megan stopped the recording.
I stared at the screen.
“Keep going.”
Patricia’s voice returned.
“She doesn’t know what the rear parcel is worth.”
My stomach tightened.
Then:
“Claire still thinks Arthur sold it years ago.”
Arthur.
My father.
“She doesn’t understand property,” Patricia continued. “She’s sentimental. That’s the obstacle.”
Evelyn began taking notes.
Fifteen minutes later, another recording began.
Ryan entered the kitchen.
Patricia was waiting.
“Northbridge called again,” she said.
Ryan looked exhausted.
“Stop taking their calls.”
“You created this problem.”
“I know.”
“Then solve it.”
“Not by dragging Claire’s inheritance into it.”
I leaned toward the laptop.
That was not what I expected to hear.
Patricia laughed bitterly.
“Now you grow a conscience?”
Ryan turned toward her.
“This wasn’t what we discussed.”
“What did you think would happen? They’d forget the debt?”
“I thought the refinancing would go through.”
“It didn’t.”
Ryan rubbed both hands over his face.
“Claire won’t sign.”
“She will.”
“No.”
His voice became firm.
“She won’t.”
Patricia stepped closer.
“Then make her understand what’s at stake.”
The recording ended.
For several seconds, none of us spoke.
“Ryan knew,” I whispered.
“He knew somebody was interested in the property.”
“Yes,” Evelyn said.
“But he didn’t want her involved.”
“Apparently not at that moment.”
The distinction mattered.
These recordings weren’t giving me a cartoon villain.
They showed something more complicated.
Ryan resisted certain lines.
Then crossed others.
Whatever internal struggle he had experienced did not change the moment he put his hands on me.
But it showed that the decision had not appeared out of nowhere.
The next clip showed Ryan alone at the kitchen table.
Bills surrounded him.
He called someone.
“Marcus, I need another month.”
Pause.
“No, I told my mother not to involve Northbridge.”
Pause.
“I don’t care what she promised them.”
Then Ryan stood sharply.
“My wife is not collateral.”
I closed my eyes.
For some reason, hearing that hurt more than hearing him insult me.
May you like
Because he had known exactly where the boundary was.
And later, he crossed it anyway.
