A Decade For Nothing novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Thirty-One of It Is Mine

Lydia comes with her father's driver for her boxes and shows a hotel receipt in Levi's name on a card he does not own; she keeps the savings, and the altar clip has two million views.

Our apartment was dark when I got home.

Joel had wanted to come up with me, and I had sent him to look after Nan.

I turned on the lamp and sat on the arm of the couch we had bought together at a yard sale.

Her mug was still in the sink, the blue one with the chip.

At eight o'clock a key turned in the lock.

I stood up so fast my knee hit the coffee table.

It was Lydia.

She had changed into jeans and a grey sweatshirt, and her hair was down, with the pins still tangled at the back.

A man in a grey suit waited in the hall behind her with two flat cardboard boxes under his arm.

He was her father's driver.

"I'm only here for my things," she said.

Her eyes were swollen and she would not look above my chin.

"Lydia."

"I'll be quick."

She went past me into the bedroom, and the driver followed her at a polite distance.

I stood in the doorway and watched her open the closet.

She took down the green coat first, the one I had bought her in December.

She folded it.

Then she put it back on the hanger and took down the one her father had bought her instead.

"Tell me what you think I did," I said.

"I'm not doing this tonight."

"You said you knew. You owe me one sentence."

Her hands stopped on the hangers.

She took her phone out of her back pocket, found something, and held it out to me without turning around.

It was a scan of a hotel receipt.

The Brecken Hotel, one room, one night, March 18, checked in at 10:58 p.m.

The guest name was L. Harrow.

At the bottom it said paid, and gave a card number ending in 4471.

"That isn't my card," I said.

"Macy said you'd say that."

I stared at the back of her head.

"I don't own a card that ends in 4471. I've had the same debit card for six years. You've seen it. You've paid with it."

"She said you'd say whatever the receipt didn't cover."

"Lydia, I was in the emergency room with Nan on the eighteenth, from ten forty until almost two. I'll show you the paper. It has the times."

She turned around then.

Her eyes were wet and furious.

"You always have the paper," she said. "You always have the answer. You said nothing at the altar. You stood there and held my hand and asked what was wrong."

"Because I did not know what was wrong."

"Or because you've had a lot of practice."

I felt that one land somewhere under my ribs.

"You really believe it," I said.

"I don't know what I believe."

"Then why did you take the money?"

The driver, at the edge of the room, found something to study on the ceiling.

Lydia's chin lifted.

"My father says it's the cost of the wedding," she said. "The deposits. The band. The flowers. He paid for half of it, Levi."

"I paid for the other half. I paid for the food your guests are eating right now. And that account is thirty-eight thousand dollars, and thirty-one of it is mine."

"Then take me to court."

"I'm not going to take you to court."

"Then I'll keep it until I understand what happened."

She pulled the zipper shut on her bag.

"You don't get to decide that," I said.

"Right now, I do."

She walked past me again.

At the front door she stopped, with her hand on the frame.

I thought she might turn around.

She did not.

"Don't come to the house," she said. "Macy's lying down. She's been sick all day. If you go near her, my father will call the police."

"For what?"

"For harassing a pregnant woman," she said, and her voice cracked on the word. "Macy said you might try."

The door closed behind her.

The driver carried the two boxes out.

I stood alone in the living room and counted the things that were gone.

The green coat I had bought her was still hanging in the closet.

She had taken the other one.

My phone vibrated on the table.

Joel had sent me a link with no message.

I opened it.

It was the video of the altar, shot from the third row by a stranger.

Lydia's face when she read the text.

Her hand pushing the ring into my palm.

My voice saying, "What's wrong? Talk to me."

Someone had added a caption in white capital letters.

GROOM CHEATED WITH THE BRIDE'S COUSIN. HE STILL ACTED SURPRISED.

The view counter said two million.

It had been posted four hours ago.

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