Chapter 6 - The Money Story.
Rachel invited Mark inside only because the conversation had moved beyond the porch.
They sat at opposite ends of the kitchen table where Diane had stood the day before.
Mark explained what he had believed for nearly eight years.
After their father's death, Diane told him that Thomas Bennett had set aside forty thousand dollars to help Rachel buy a home.
According to Diane, Mark had received his share earlier through college expenses and a used truck.
Rachel stared at him in disbelief.
Their father had helped Mark buy a five-thousand-dollar truck when he was nineteen.
He had also helped Rachel with two semesters of community college.
Neither gift came close to forty thousand dollars.
"Did you ever see paperwork?" Rachel asked.
"No."
"Did you ask?"
Mark's face tightened.
"Mom said Dad didn't want us fighting over money."
Rachel almost smiled at the contradiction.
Nothing created more fighting than secret money.
She walked to the hall closet and pulled down a plastic storage box.
Inside were the papers she had saved after their father's estate closed.
Tax documents.
Insurance letters.
A copy of the will.
Bank statements Diane had given both children at the time.
Rachel spread them across the table.
The will divided everything equally between Diane and the two children after specific expenses.
There was no house fund.
There was no note about forty thousand dollars.
Mark looked sick.
"Maybe it wasn't in the will."
"Maybe."
Rachel did not want to leap from one lie to another conclusion.
They searched through old statements for nearly an hour.
Then Rachel found something she had forgotten.
A transfer from their father's savings account into a custodial family account three months before he died.
The amount was eighty thousand dollars.
The notation read, "For R + M housing/education."
Mark leaned closer.
"Eighty?"
Rachel's pulse quickened.
She remembered their father talking vaguely about wanting both children to have a stable start.
Diane had told Rachel the account went toward medical costs.
Rachel had believed her.
Mark pulled out his phone.
"I'm calling Mom."
Rachel stopped him.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because we don't know what happened."
"She lied to both of us."
"Yes."
"For eight years."
"Maybe."
Mark laughed without humor.
"You're still protecting her."
Rachel shook her head.
"I'm protecting the truth from becoming another family rumor."
The distinction seemed to land.
Mark sat back.
Rachel photographed the transfer record.
Rachel thought about the years before she bought the bungalow.
She had rented a basement studio, skipped vacations, and worked Saturday sterilization shifts at another clinic.
Every saved dollar had felt small until the mortgage lender finally approved her.
If forty thousand dollars had ever been waiting for her, she would not have spent those years believing she was completely on her own.
Mark seemed to understand the same thing as he watched her face.
Then she searched the estate box again.
At the bottom was an old envelope addressed in their father's handwriting.
It said, "Rachel and Mark - together."
The seal had already been opened.
Rachel had never seen it before.
Inside was a single handwritten page.
May you like
The first line made both of them stop breathing for a moment.
"If your mother tells either of you that one received more than the other, ask to see the account."
