"And the HELOC," Nora went on. Her voice was very calm. She'd practiced this in the shower that morning, with the water running so no one would hear. "Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Delta Federal, against my grandfather's house. It was on the desk. You put a smiley face on the flag. You wanted me to sign it at my baby shower. What was it for?"
"It was for us. For the family. It was an investment—"
"Meyer Lane Holdings," Priya said from the table, not looking up from her legal pad. "California limited liability company, filed with the Secretary of State on March eleventh. Two managing members. Grant M. Hollis and Diane R. Castellano. Business address a P.O. box on Freeport Boulevard." She turned a page. "It's a public record, Grant. Took me four minutes."
The name sat in the room. Meyer Lane. Meyer, like the lemon. Like the tree in the back corner of the yard that they had kissed behind.
"Get out," Nora said.
"Nora, please—"
"You have fifty-one minutes. Get your clothes and get out."
He got up. He went up the stairs with the duffels. Frank followed him up and stood in the bedroom doorway the entire time he packed, and didn't say anything, and when Grant came down with the full bags, Frank came down right behind him, and at the front door Grant turned around once more.
"I did love you," he said. "I want you to know that. I still do."
"I believe you," Nora said, and it was the truest thing she'd said all week, and the worst. "That's what makes it so disgusting."
* * *
Her father found the 401(k) loan on Thursday.
He hadn't been looking for it. He'd gone back to the house in Land Park—Diane was staying with Teresa in Elk Grove—to get clean clothes and his reading glasses and a box of sandpaper he wanted for the boat, and he'd sat down at the computer in the spare room to pay the water bill, which Diane always paid, which he had never paid once in thirty-two years of marriage. He didn't know the password. He tried their anniversary. He tried Nora's birthday. On the third try he typed LEO, all capitals, and the computer opened.