His voice was flat and empty of emotion.

It was a tone I had rarely heard him use with her.

“But you lied to me.”

“I did what I had to do to protect our family,” Juliette said.

She reached out again, her fingers brushing the fabric of his sleeve.

“You don’t know what it is like to worry about the future.”

“You have this big house, this nice land.”

“I have nothing to my name.”

“You have three hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” I said.

“Be quiet!” Juliette screamed.

She turned on me, her face flushed dark red under her heavy makeup.

“You have ruined this family.”

“You have poisoned my son’s mind against his own blood.”

“He was a good, loyal boy before he met you.”

Dan looked down at the phone again.

He tapped the screen, zooming in on the date of the wire transfer.

“This was cleared three days ago,” Dan said.

“The exact same day you asked me to transfer five thousand dollars to your checking account.”

Juliette opened her mouth, but no sound came out.