Through the window, I watched her car headlights cut through the darkness of the driveway as she drove away.

The house was completely quiet now.

The cricket noises from the yard seemed louder through the open screened window.

Dan slowly sat down on one of the barstools at the island.

He put his head in his hands.

I stood across from him, the blue folder still lying between us.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He didn’t look up.

“She’s my mother, Annie,” he said softly.

“I know,” I said.

“But she was going to destroy us.”

Dan let out a long breath, his shoulders rising and falling.

“I didn’t know about the twenty thousand,” he said.

“I believed her when she said she was sick.”

“I know you did,” I said, reaching out to touch his arm.

“But now we know the truth.”

He reached out and put his hand over mine.

The skin of his palm was cold.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

“We clean up the kitchen,” I said.

I walked over to the sink and turned on the hot water.