“When?” I shot back. “After what, Eric? After someone comes looking for it?”
His expression flinched.
“Is it illegal?” I demanded. “Did you steal it?”
“No!”
Silence filled the room. Heavy. Suffocating.
I searched his face for the man I had known for decades. The one who brought me coffee in bed on Sundays. The one who held my hand at my mother’s funeral.
Who are you? I wanted to ask.
Instead, I said, “You work as a janitor. We count coins at the end of the month. And you have nearly $280,000 sitting in our closet.”
He looked at the floor.
“I can explain,” he said.
But he did not.
I felt something inside me harden. “Then explain,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. I could hear the tremor in my own voice, and I hated it.
I had stood at a register for 22 years, dealing with angry customers, shoplifters, and broken card machines. I was not a fragile woman.
But this was my marriage.
Eric pulled out the edge of the bed and sat down slowly, like his knees might give out.
“It’s mine.”
“That much I figured,” I replied. “How?”
He looked at the duffel bag again, then back at me. “Do you remember Mrs. Alvarez? The old woman who used to live in 3B?”
I blinked. “Of course I do. She moved out years ago. Or her nephew moved her out.”
He nodded. “About four years ago, before she left, she used to talk to me when I’d fix things in the hallway. She didn’t have much family around. Just that nephew who showed up once in a while.”
I frowned.
“What does she have to do with this?”
“She trusted me,” he said quietly. “More than she trusted him.”
I stayed silent, waiting.
“One afternoon, she asked me to come into her apartment. She said she needed help moving a box. When I got there, she told me something strange.”
He paused and swallowed. “She said she had been saving money for decades. Cash. She grew up poor. Didn’t trust banks. Kept everything hidden.”
I stared at him, my chest tight.
“She showed me a suitcase,” he continued. “Full of money. I told her she was crazy to keep it like that. She laughed and said she knew.”
“And?” I pressed.
