Chapter 11 - Tiffany Comes Back
Tiffany came to my house alone.
No Richard.
No Elaine.
No lawyer.
She looked smaller without the wedding.
No diamond earrings.
She stood on the porch.
“Can I come in?”
“No.”
Boundaries should feel real.
“I need to talk to Daniel.”
“He doesn’t live here.”
“Is he with you?”
“No.”
Daniel was staying in an apartment near the restaurant while the business restructuring began.
Tiffany stared at me.
“You hate me.”
“I don’t know you well enough anymore.”
“The slap was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
She wanted the apology to unlock something.
“I was under pressure.”
“Still wrong.”
“My father was threatening Daniel.”
“Still wrong.”
“You embarrassed me.”
“Still wrong.”
Then whispered:
“I used your signature.”
“I know.”
She expected surprise.
“I never thought the loan would default.”
“That is not how permission works.”
“Dad said it was temporary.”
“Again, not permission.”
“I thought once the development happened, everyone would be okay.”
“Everyone?”
That word exposed her.
Everyone meant Daniel.
I asked:
“Did you know about Cedar Glen?”
“Why?”
“Dad said you’d be happier somewhere smaller.”
“You mean somewhere not sitting on forty-two acres.”
Then I asked:
“Did Daniel know?”
“No.”
I believed that too.
Tiffany looked at me.
“He loves you.”
“Then he has a strange way of financing it.”
Then she said:
“There’s something you don’t know about my father.”
“He isn’t doing this because he wants the farm.”
“What does he want?”
“He already promised it.”
“To who?”
“A developer.”
Richard had signed a contingent sale agreement.
He had promised land he did not own.
May you like
My land.
And closing was in seventeen days.
