“I know that now.” She was sobbing. “He said you’d called him. He said you two had a long talk, that you’d been feeling bad about how the divorce went and you wanted to help. He said you offered to let them stay at your place for a few weeks while you were at Aunt Rachel’s, just until their new apartment was ready. He said you’d meant to give him the code yourself but you’d been busy and your phone was acting up and you told him to get it from me.”
I closed my eyes.
It was so perfectly Mark.
Not a crude lie. A lie built carefully, with just enough detail to sound true. My phone acting up. My trip to Rachel’s. Feeling bad about the divorce. All the things a daughter who loved both her parents would want to believe.
“Did you call me to check?” I asked. Not angrily. I just needed to know.
