Which meant there was something behind it.
“Did you give him money?”
“I said this isn’t your business.”
My pulse quickened.
“How much?”
“Rachel.”
“How much?”
Eleanor’s voice hardened.
“Forty thousand dollars.”
The hallway seemed to narrow.
I stared at her.
“What?”
“It wasn’t all at once.”
I could barely hear her over the sudden rushing in my ears.
“Why?”
“He needed it.”
“For what?”
“He said there were business expenses.”
“What business?”
“Consulting.”
I almost laughed again.
Daniel’s consulting work had never required forty thousand dollars.
Most of it involved helping local businesses with digital marketing plans from his laptop.
No staff.
No office.
No inventory.
“What exactly did he say?”
Eleanor frowned.
“That he had a major client opportunity and needed short-term cash.”
“When?”
“Over the last eight months.”
Eight months.
I thought about the new car.
The expensive dinners Daniel had begun suggesting.
