Chapter 2 - The Dress Anna Would Not Throw Away
Thomas did not confront Meredith in front of Rosie. He took his daughter to Jonah’s sister, Ellen, a retired elementary-school nurse who lived in a small brick house with paper snowflakes taped to every window.
Ellen met them at the door wearing slippers shaped like reindeer. The sight of Rosie’s stained hair made her smile disappear, but she kept her voice steady.
“Would you like a warm bath or hot chocolate first?”
Rosie considered. “Can I have both?”
“Absolutely.”
Thomas stayed outside the bathroom while Ellen helped Rosie wash. Through the door he heard his daughter ask whether cranberry stains came out of hair. Ellen answered that most things did, especially with patience and a little shampoo.
Thomas wished the same could be said for what he had allowed inside his house.
He called the police and reported the incident. Peter agreed to give a statement. Jonah had seen the immediate aftermath, and the dining-room security system might have recorded more. Thomas requested that nobody delete the footage. He did not threaten Meredith. He did not call in favors. He asked the responding officer how to preserve evidence and followed the instructions.
Then he sat at Ellen’s kitchen table and examined the receipt.
The storage facility was in Briar Glen, twenty miles west. Anna had rented a unit there three weeks before she died. The receipt listed a recurring payment from an account Thomas did not recognize.
His phone rang. Meredith.
“Where is Rosie?”
“Safe.”
“You can’t take her away because of one misunderstanding.”
“Peter saw what happened.”
“Peter has always hated me.”
“Rosie says you make her clean the kitchen before sunrise.”
Silence.
Thomas looked toward the bathroom door. “How long?”
“She likes helping.”
“She’s seven.”
“She’s spoiled.”
“I’m ending this call. We can communicate through counsel.”
“Thomas, listen. That dress belongs to me.”
“It belonged to Anna.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me.”
Meredith hung up.
Ellen emerged with Rosie in borrowed pajamas. Her hair was clean, but the skin near her wrist remained red. Ellen had documented what she observed and urged Thomas to arrange an appropriate medical examination. He did.
Rosie climbed onto his lap. “Are you mad?”
“At what happened. Not at you.”
“Meredith says if I tell, you’ll stop loving me because I make trouble.”
Thomas closed his eyes. “She lied.”
Rosie pressed her face against his shoulder. “I tried to be good.”
“You were never supposed to earn love by being good enough.”
After Rosie fell asleep, Ellen brought him a shoebox Anna had left at her house years ago. Anna had asked Ellen to keep it until Rosie was old enough to understand a particular family story.
Inside were photographs of a Christmas parade, a tiny silver bell, and a letter.
Thomas unfolded it carefully.
Dear Tom, if anything happens to me, I need you to know that the missing money from the holiday fund was not an accounting mistake. Someone is using children’s names to move it. I’ve kept copies where the people who work with you cannot reach them. Please don’t let anyone tell Rosie her mother was a thief.
Thomas read the last sentence three times.
Anna had died after her car slid off an icy road. A week later, an auditor accused her of diverting $380,000 from the employee Christmas fund. Thomas had privately repaid the money, refusing to let the accusation stain her memory.
He had never believed Anna stole it. But he had never found proof.
Ellen pointed to a photograph in the box. It showed Anna beside a woman in a red coat at a community toy drive.
“That woman came here last month,” Ellen said.
“What woman?”
“She asked whether I still had Anna’s shoebox.”
Thomas looked closer.
May you like
The woman in the red coat was Meredith.
But the photograph had been taken two years before Thomas claimed to have met her.
