Chapter 4: Two Million

I opened the door.

I had meant to leave the chain on.

Then I wanted him to see my face.

"Get up, Warner."

"Not until you take it."

He held the envelope higher.

Behind him a door clicked open and a woman in curlers leaned out of 3B with a phone already raised.

Across the hall, a man in boxers set down his trash bag and watched.

Warner didn't notice them.

Warner had never noticed an audience that wasn't paying.

"It's two million," he said. "It's yours with no conditions."

"Go see your father in Florida. Just let Camille's lawyer speak to the detective before eight."

"How do you know about eight o'clock?"

His jaw jumped.

"The judge's clerk is a friend of the family," he said.

I almost laughed.

Of course she was.

Forty guests had watched me fall, and the whole county was somehow a friend of the family.

"Two million dollars," I said. "That's what you think a woman costs."

"I think you're hurt, and I think you're smart. I'm trying to make sure nobody else gets hurt."

"Somebody else already did."

I stepped out into the hall in Hattie's too-large T-shirt and bare feet.

He flinched at my feet, not at my face.

I took the envelope out of his hands.

I opened the flap, slid the check out and looked at the pretty green border and all those zeros.

Then I tore it in half.

I tore the halves in half again, and again, and let them fall onto his knees.

The woman in 3B said, "Oh my God," very softly, with joy.

"Willa." Warner's voice cracked. "You don't understand. You have no idea what she can do."

"Camille?"

"She'll end us both. She'll take everything. The company, the house, Mother's name, you, me. She'll bring all of it down on top of us."

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