Eli’s voice, whispering, with a bathroom fan running behind it.
“Mom. I’m okay. I found the card in Grandma’s desk in August. There was a letter with your name but Dad took it. Listen. He said if I didn’t say that thing to the judge, you’d lose the house. He said he could do that. I didn’t understand but I didn’t want you to lose the house so I said it. I’m sorry. I’m going to send you something else. Just wait for me.”
I played it four times.
Then I called Bernard Tate at home and said, “He said he could make me lose my house. Can he?”
“Mrs. Fenton,” Bernard said slowly, “who do you pay your rent to?”
PART 3
I paid my rent to a company called Cedar Row Residential, LLC.
I had paid it for five years, by check, to a post office box in Reston, and I had never once wondered who was on the other side of the box.
