Chapter 15 - EWALD HAD BEEN HAPPY TO BELIEVE IT.
Ewald refused to come to Helga's apartment.
Helga was relieved.
"Then don't bring him."
Alexander looked at her across the kitchen.
"It's probably better if everyone talks."
"No."
"Mom."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because five angry adults in this apartment will make the neighbors think I'm running a very disappointing casino."
Alexander laughed.
Helga didn't.
"I'm serious."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Neutral place."
They chose a small private room at an old restaurant near Tarrytown.
Not expensive enough to become part of the argument.
Not cheap enough for Bianca to suspect Helga chose it to make a point.
Helga hated that she considered that.
Bianca arrived first.
Ewald came eight minutes later.
Lydia was not invited.
This was no longer about witnesses.
Alexander sat at one end of the table.
Helga took the seat beside him.
Then changed her mind and moved across from him.
Alexander noticed.
She didn't want the seating arrangement to make this look like mother and son against Bianca.
Ewald ordered coffee.
Bianca ordered nothing.
Helga ordered fries.
Everyone looked at her.
"What?"
She asked.
"I skipped lunch."
Alexander smiled.
Ewald did too, briefly.
Then nobody knew how to begin.
Finally Alexander placed the torn envelope on the table.
Bianca stared at it.
"Really?"
"It's why we're here."
Helga reached for a fry.
"No."
Three heads turned toward her.
Helga dipped the fry in ketchup.
"We're here because of what people did around the envelope."
Alexander nodded.
"Fair."
Ewald sighed.
"I'll start."
Bianca looked at him.
He continued.
"I should not have taken it."
Helga ate another fry.
Ewald frowned.
"That's it?"
"What would you like me to do?"
"I don't know."
"I thought apologies usually have a second sentence."
Alexander looked down to hide a smile.
Ewald exhaled.
"I should not have taken it, and I should have asked Alexander whether Bianca was correct."
Helga nodded.
"Better."
Ewald looked at Alexander.
"I was embarrassed about money."
Alexander said nothing.
"I wanted the help."
Still nothing.
"So when Bianca told me you'd agreed, I believed her because I wanted it to be true."
That was honest.
Alexander respected it more than he wanted to.
Ewald continued.
"I didn't verify."
"No," Alexander said.
"I also should have returned the envelope immediately."
"Yes."
Ewald looked at Helga.
"And the service-entrance thing."
Bianca stiffened.
Ewald continued.
"I didn't know."
Helga nodded.
"But if I had known—"
She raised one hand.
"Don't."
He frowned.
"What?"
"Don't tell me what the better version of you would have done."
Ewald sat back.
Helga's tone remained calm.
"We're discussing the people who actually existed."
Ewald stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, nodded.
"Fair."
Bianca looked miserable.
Alexander turned to her.
"Your turn."
She glared.
"Do not moderate this like a meeting."
"Then speak."
Bianca looked at Helga.
Helga waited.
"I am sorry."
Helga said nothing.
Bianca continued.
"For the envelope."
Silence.
"For what I said."
Silence.
"For the coat."
Helga's eyes narrowed slightly.
"And the side entrance."
Bianca swallowed.
"I knew what I was doing."
Alexander looked at her.
Ewald did too.
Bianca kept her eyes on Helga.
"I told myself it was practical."
Helga waited.
"It wasn't."
"What was it?"
Bianca's jaw tightened.
"Status."
The word landed cleanly.
No euphemism.
No excuse.
Bianca continued.
"I was embarrassed by the idea that people might know you had worked for my father's family."
Ewald shifted.
Helga noticed.
Bianca continued.
"And I wanted you to feel that I controlled the room."
Alexander stared at her.
Helga did not move.
"Why?"
Bianca's eyes filled.
"Because you didn't seem impressed by any of it."
Helga frowned.
"By what?"
"The house. The people. The money."
"I've cleaned nicer houses."
Alexander closed his eyes.
Bianca almost laughed.
Then she did.
A tiny, unwilling laugh.
Helga smiled.
For one second, the tension eased.
Then Bianca said, "That's exactly it."
"What is?"
"You never looked up to me."
Helga stared.
Bianca shook her head.
"I know how stupid that sounds."
"It sounds honest."
"I wanted you to."
"Why?"
"Because everybody else did."
Ewald looked uncomfortable.
Alexander studied Bianca.
There was her rationalization.
Not innocence.
Not an excuse.
A need for hierarchy.
Bianca wanted rooms where status was understood and respected.
Helga had refused the role assigned to her simply by not being impressed.
That was enough to make Bianca resent her.
Helga leaned back.
"You wanted your partner's mother to look up to you?"
Bianca gave a broken laugh.
"When you say it like that, it's terrible."
"It was terrible before I said it."
Bianca nodded.
"Yes."
Helga looked at her for a long moment.
"Thank you for saying it."
Alexander relaxed slightly.
Then Bianca turned to Ewald.
"Now tell them what you told me."
Ewald frowned.
"I told them."
"No."
Bianca's voice sharpened.
"Tell them what you said about Helga."
Ewald's face changed.
Helga noticed immediately.
"What about me?" she asked.
Ewald looked down.
Bianca continued.
"A week before the dinner, you told me Helga had been pressuring Alexander for repayment."
Helga stared.
Ewald shook his head.
"I said I heard Alexander wanted to repay her."
"From whom?"
Ewald did not answer.
Alexander leaned forward.
"From whom?"
Ewald looked irritated.
"It was a conversation."
"With who?"
"I don't remember."
Bianca laughed.
"You remembered perfectly when it helped you take the money."
Ewald looked at his daughter.
"Careful."
She stared back.
"No."
The word surprised everybody.
Bianca continued.
"You let me believe Helga was pulling money away from us."
Helga's expression hardened.
"Us?"
Bianca shook her head.
"Wrong word."
"No."
Helga looked at Ewald.
"Continue."
Ewald rubbed his forehead.
"I may have said Helga expected Alexander to settle something."
"Based on what?"
Ewald remained silent.
Alexander said, "This matters."
Ewald looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because Bianca used that belief to justify confronting Mom."
"I didn't tell her to do that."
"No."
Alexander nodded.
"But did you give her the belief?"
Ewald stared at the envelope.
Then he said quietly, "I heard Alexander talking about repaying his mother."
Alexander frowned.
"Where?"
Ewald hesitated.
"At your house."
"When?"
"Two weeks ago."
Alexander thought.
Then remembered.
A phone call.
He had been in the study with his financial adviser.
Ewald had arrived early for dinner.
The study door might have been open.
"So you overheard me."
Ewald nodded.
"And you told Bianca."
"Yes."
"Then she told you I'd agreed to give you money."
"Yes."
Alexander sat back.
There it was.
No conspiracy.
A loop.
Ewald heard something incomplete.
He told Bianca.
Bianca became threatened.
She reassured Ewald by claiming Alexander had agreed to help him.
Ewald believed it because he wanted the money.
Bianca then treated that expectation as a commitment.
Assumption fed assumption until somebody ripped an envelope from an old woman's hands.
Helga looked at all three of them.
"Remarkable."
Alexander glanced at her.
"What?"
"You built an entire financial plan without asking the person with the money."
Ewald looked embarrassed.
Bianca looked furious.
Alexander looked tired.
Helga ate another fry.
Then Bianca said something that changed the conversation.
"I didn't just assume."
Alexander turned.
"What?"
Bianca looked at Ewald.
"He told me you were planning to cut me out of your financial decisions."
Alexander stared.
Ewald's face went still.
May you like
Bianca continued.
"That's why I panicked."
