For a long moment nobody said anything at all.
Then Diane laughed, a short bright laugh that was meant to sound easy and didn't. "Ruth, honestly. It's a mix-up. There were so many boxes this year, I must have mislabeled it when I was wrapping."
"You rewrapped it," Grandma Ruth said. "I sent it in brown paper with a green ribbon and a card. Where is the card?"
"I don't know. I don't remember a card. It's Christmas, there's paper everywhere..."
"There were two boxes," Grandma Ruth went on, as if Diane hadn't spoken. "Madison's had a red ribbon. In it was a cashmere sweater, a copy of Little Women, which I am aware she will not read, and an envelope. Claire's had a green ribbon, the quilt, the necklace, and an envelope. Each envelope had a check for twenty-five hundred dollars. I wrote them the same day, with the same pen, and I wrote the girls' names on them myself."
Greg looked up from his coffee for the first time. "Mom. You sent them five thousand dollars?"
"I sent each of my granddaughters a gift toward her future. I've been putting it aside since your father died." She reached into the pocket of her cardigan and took out her phone, an old one with a cracked corner, and held it up. "Last night I couldn't sleep, so I checked my bank. Both checks have been cashed. Madison's was deposited into an account I don't recognize on the ninth. So was Claire's. Same day. Same account. And the endorsement on the back of Claire's check isn't Claire's handwriting."
She turned the screen around. Claire could not see it from where she sat, but she didn't have to. She watched her father lean forward and look, and she watched his face as he recognized the loops of the signature, the loops of every tag under the tree.
"Diane," he said.
"It went to the household account." Diane's voice had gone tight and quick. "It's not like I spent it on myself. Do you know what that ski trip cost? Do you know what Madison's tuition at Saint Agnes costs? Somebody in this family has to manage the money, Greg, and it's not you. Claire is going to community college. She doesn't need twenty-five hundred dollars sitting in a savings account doing nothing while her sister needs..."
"Needs," Grandma Ruth repeated softly.
"Yes, needs. Madison has opportunities. She has friends whose families do things. I'm not going to have her be the one who can't go."
"And the necklace?" Grandma Ruth asked. "Did Madison need my mother's necklace?"
Diane opened her mouth and closed it.
"And the quilt with Claire's name on it? You put it under the tree. You wrapped it in your paper and you wrote Madison on the tag. And then I think you lost your nerve, because you hid it behind the skirt. You were going to give it to her later, when I wasn't watching."
"That is not fair."