What Lauren Was Really Afraid Of
Chapter 09 - What Lauren Was Really Afraid Of
My mother asked Lauren to come to her house for dinner.
She did not tell her I would be there.
When Lauren walked into the dining room and saw me, she stopped.
For a second, we were children again.
She was six, I was nine, and she had broken my favorite snow globe.
That same look.
Guilt searching for a smaller explanation.
“Emily.”
I stayed seated.
Daniel was not there.
Neither was Nate.
Just my mother, Lauren, and me.
I placed the bank records on the table.
Then the false invoices.
Then the loan application.
Then the inventory reports.
Lauren stared at the pile.
My mother whispered, “Please tell us there’s an explanation.”
Lauren sat down.
“There is.”
I nearly laughed.
She told us about Nate’s restaurant.
The debt.
The lien against their house.
The private lender who called every day.
She said she took the first $24,000 because she believed she could replace it within a month.
Then the property sale failed.
So she took more.
Then she forged the loan application because she thought one large loan could hide the smaller thefts.
Every bad decision had been made to fix the decision before it.
Until the lies became a life.
My mother cried silently.
I did not.
“Why the knife?”
Lauren looked at me.
Her face hardened.
That was when I understood.
She could confess to stealing.
But not to wanting to destroy me.
“I didn’t put it there.”
I slid Margaret’s printed messages across the table.
Lauren went still.
“I said why the knife?”
Her breathing changed.
Finally, she whispered, “Daniel knew.”
“Knew what?”
“About the money.”
“I know.”
Her eyes lifted.
“He told Nate he was going to talk to you after the honeymoon.”
So that was it.
Not the marriage.
Not jealousy.
Time.
Lauren needed time.
“If the wedding fell apart,” she said, “I thought Daniel would stay out of the business. I thought you’d be too overwhelmed to look at the books.”
My mother made a sound like she had been struck.
Lauren looked at her.
“I never meant for anyone to get hurt.”
I leaned forward.
“You hid a knife under my wedding dress.”
“It was wrapped.”
I stared at her.
She closed her eyes.
“I made an anonymous report to church security.”
My stomach twisted.
“What report?”
“That the bride might be carrying something dangerous.”
The room went silent.
“The plan was for security to stop you before the ceremony,” she said. “Privately. I thought they’d find the knife, cancel the wedding, and Daniel’s family would believe you had a breakdown.”
My mother stood.
She could no longer sit near her.
But Lauren kept talking.
“The dog wasn’t supposed to be there.”
I thought of Duke walking toward me.
The one thing Lauren had not planned.
The one witness who could not be manipulated.
Then I asked the question I had been afraid to ask.
“Did you want Daniel to leave me?”
Lauren looked directly into my eyes.
May you like
“Yes.”
And for the first time in my life, I did not recognize my sister.
