“No, she didn’t.”
“You don’t know what happened while you were away.”
“I know more than you think.”
Kendra slammed her palm on the table.
“Naomi has been poisoning you against us since you got back!”
That was when I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because after five days of pretending, I was finally finished.
“I haven’t needed Naomi to tell me much.”
I placed my phone on the table.
Then I slid a thick envelope from my jacket.
Bank records.
Property documents.
Credit-card applications.
Medical bills.
Copies of signatures.
The color drained from Mom’s face.
I turned to Kendra.
“That truck outside?”
She said nothing.
“Twenty-seven thousand dollars from one of the accounts receiving my deployment pay.”
I turned back to Mom.
“The rental property on Madison Street?”
Her mouth opened.
I continued.
“Down payment funded through three transfers made within eleven days of my combat bonus arriving.”
