Chapter 20: Half

Ryan walked into the garage.

He turned in a slow circle with his phone up.

"Wow," he said to the camera. "So this is where my money went."

"Guys, this is the big tech company. It's a garage."

Nolan stood up.

"You need to leave," he said. "This is a private house."

"And you are?"

"The guy telling you to leave."

Ryan grinned at the phone.

"The new boyfriend. Of course. She doesn't stay single long, you guys. She needs somebody to pay for."

Garner came in behind the lawyer and shut the side door against the cold.

"Mr. Decker," he said. "You rang my doorbell. You have two minutes, and then I call the police."

The lawyer set his briefcase on the paint bucket and opened it.

He was a gray-haired man with a Dayton firm's name on his tie clip.

"Ms. Lowry, I'll be brief," he said. "My client and you lived as a couple for three years."

"He contributed to your household. He supported you through your grandmother's illness."

"He believes the twenty thousand dollars was joint savings, and so is whatever you've made from it."

He took out a single sheet.

"We're asking for half. Of your investment account and your share of this company."

"Or we file in Ohio next week."

Ryan turned the phone on me.

"Half, Linds. That's fair. I gave you three years."

I looked at the lawyer.

"Did he tell you he supported me?"

"That's my client's position."

"Can I show you mine?"

The lawyer glanced at Garner.

Garner gestured at the workbench. "Please. It's her garage too."

I opened my laptop and turned it toward the lawyer.

"This is the sale of my grandmother's house. Her name, then mine. Nobody else's."

"The twenty thousand is what was left after the funeral and her hospice bill."

"His name isn't anywhere on it."

The lawyer leaned in and read.

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