Chapter 5 - The Brother at the Door
Severin came to the house that evening without his wife.
He looked older than thirty-five.
He held a grocery bag of untouched fruit as though it might make the visit ordinary.
Dahlia left it on the counter.
“Did you watch me sign that loan?”
“No,” he admitted.
“Then why is your name beside mine?”
“Tatum said she'd handled it.”
“And you signed as a witness?”
He glanced at me.
“I thought Dahlia had agreed to help for a few months.”
“You didn't ask her,” I said.
Severin rubbed both palms down his face.
The catering company had lost two major clients.
A kitchen fire had destroyed equipment, and their insurer was contesting part of the claim.
Tatum had promised a new contract would cover the loan before anyone noticed.
“How could nobody notice?” Dahlia asked.
“My name was on it.”
“I didn't think it would get this far.”
“That isn't an answer.”
I used to think of Severin as the boy who fixed Dahlia's bicycle when she was six.
He'd carried her across a flooded sidewalk so her new shoes wouldn't get wet.
I looked at the man in front of me and wondered when helping his sister had become using her.
“Did Tatum deliberately knock the fountain over?” I asked.
“She was upset.”
“About what?”
He wouldn't answer.
Dahlia moved to the door and opened it.
“Leave, Severin.”
He stepped onto the porch, then stopped.
“Tatum says you were going to embarrass her at the party,” he told Dahlia.
“She said you found something in her office.”
May you like
My daughter slowly turned back toward him.
She had never mentioned Tatum's office to me.
