Before I could ask another question, my phone rang.
The screen displayed one word.
**MOM.**
I answered.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Olivia?”
Her voice sounded unsteady.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“Why would Ethan send me something like this?”
I looked at my husband.
He held out his hand.
“Put her on speaker.”
I did.
“Linda,” Ethan said calmly, “did you open the entire package?”
There was a pause.
Then my mother asked, “Where did you get that photograph?”
“What photograph?” I interrupted.
Neither answered immediately.
Then Mom said something that made my entire body go cold.
**“Ethan, you weren’t supposed to keep that check.”**
I turned toward him.
“What check?”
My husband took a slow breath.
“Five years ago, before our wedding, your mother offered me twenty thousand dollars.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
His expression was filled with sadness.
“She wanted me to leave you.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak.
