“Go ahead,” Regina said, putting just enough hurt into her voice to make it sound real. “I haven’t touched anything. But if you insist, then let’s go look.”
“We certainly will,” Eleanor said through clenched teeth.
Mike burst through the front door just as the little procession was heading upstairs, looking like he’d driven home too fast and knew it.
“What on earth is going on? Mom, why are you yelling loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear?”
“Elvira, forgive this mess, I’ll sort it out. Michael, a large sum of charity money has been stolen, and I know exactly who took it.”
“Mom, do you hear yourself?”
“I hear myself perfectly. Your wife is a thief, and I’m about to prove it. Upstairs. Now.”
They all went up together. Ms. Monroe looked like someone who had wandered into a family disaster by mistake. Eleanor rushed to the closet first and started yanking out stacks of freshly ironed clothes, tossing them on the floor. Her hands searched frantically through the shelves, finding only lavender sachets and empty space.
“But it was right… I mean, she must have hidden it in this corner…” Eleanor stopped, realizing she had said too much, and began pulling open drawers.
“Mom, stop this,” Mike said, his face turning red.
Eleanor kept going, dumping out drawers until a pair of Mike’s old boxers with cartoon bears on them landed by Agnes’s shoe.
“Well,” Agnes said dryly, “that’s more than I needed to know today.”
Eleanor jerked back from her, nearly hitting the doorframe.
“Mom, enough,” Mike said sharply, and this time she froze with a drawer still in her hands.
“Michael, you don’t understand. Eighteen thousand dollars is missing.”
“Then show me where it is.” He swept his hand toward the wrecked room. “You’ve turned this into a circus in front of an important guest, accused my wife, and now you’re standing in a pile of laundry. This is out of control.”
Eleanor stood in the middle of the mess, her hands trembling, her eyes darting around for the envelope she herself had tucked under the shirts just hours earlier.
“I’m not imagining this, Michael. The money was here.”
“Or you forgot where you put it and decided, as usual, to blame Regina. Let’s go downstairs. Elvira has seen more than enough of our family life for one evening.”
Mike walked out first, answering another call as he went. Ms. Monroe followed with a face like carved stone. Agnes slipped off toward the kitchen. That left only Regina and Eleanor in the room, standing among the wreckage of a plan gone wrong.
Regina stepped closer until she could smell Eleanor’s expensive perfume.
“Eleanor,” she said quietly, almost kindly. “I found your little gift under Mike’s shirts. Right where you tucked it.”
Eleanor went still.
“I moved the envelope into Elvira Monroe’s handbag. She’s downstairs right now, and your money is sitting with her things.”
Eleanor’s face drained of color as the full scale of the problem hit her. She had no good move left. If she made a scene and demanded to search Ms. Monroe’s bag, she would destroy Mike’s business prospects and humiliate herself beyond repair. If she stayed quiet, she risked losing $18,000 in charity money and explaining that to the women who had trusted her with it.
Regina adjusted her hair and put her calm expression back on.
“Come on,” she said gently. “We shouldn’t keep Ms. Monroe waiting.”
Eleanor followed her out, one hand brushing the wall for balance. Regina walked ahead with a smile she no longer bothered to hide. Downstairs, Mike stood in the living room in stony silence while Ms. Monroe scrolled through her phone, her handbag resting against her knees.
“Elvira,” Eleanor said, forcing a smile that looked painful. “Let me put your bag on the side table. It’s safer there. I’d hate for tea to spill on it.”
“Thank you, but I’m fine,” Ms. Monroe said without looking up.
“No, really, let me just hold it for a moment. You probably have important papers in there, and I’d hate for anything to happen…”
