“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Ronny had… things to say about my being all boxed up.”
“Did you tell her your new address?”
“I maybe lied about it.”
“I don’t blame you for that. What’d you tell her?”
“I was getting some renovations done.”
“You know it’s jealousy, right? Ronny’s comments about your nice home and clothing.”
“I’m not so convinced. She’s hated me since she met me. I wasn’t good enough for her son.”
“I’m sure that’s—”
“I heard her say that,” Blair cut me off. “She didn’t even try to walk it back when she saw that I’d overheard.”
“Wow. I’m sorry. I’ve never known Ronny to be as nasty as she has been with you.”
“Because she wants things from you,” Blair said.
“You’re probably not wrong about that.” I’d already had a call from her, asking for money for Matt’s grave marker. I thought that had been included with the other arrangements. Apparently not.
“I think the thing that kept her from sucking up to me like she does with you is that I’ve been really firm about my boundaries. Especially as it pertains to my money.”
“Clearly, not a bad idea. With how things have gone.”
“I guess some part of me just… always had a feeling that something was off,” she said, gaze far away. “I never saw myself as a woman who would demand separate bank accounts and would not put her husband’s name on the lease. I didn’t even put him on my Prime account.” She was silent for a moment. “Is it rude to ask you how much money you have loaned Matthew over the years?”
“Rude? No. But I honestly couldn’t tell you an exact number. Matt has been borrowing money since we were kids. And looking back, possibly taking shit too. I blamed my siblings for some things that went missing. But I’m pretty sure now that it was Matt.”
“Can you give me a ballpark? Sorry. I know this is invasive. I just… I’m kind of curious what I might have lost if I hadn’t been so firm about the bank account thing.”
“Several hundred thousand. Probably closer to seven figures.”
“You never questioned it?”
“Constantly. Especially knowing it was probably going to go to some scheme or another that wasn’t going to pay off. But I figured that was what friends did. Especially when it wasn’t hurting my bottom line to give it to him.”
“What did you get?”
“What do you mean?”
“If Matthew got money from you, what did you get out of your friendship?”
Well, shit.
Her words had me slouching back in my seat, just staring at her.
What did I get?
Honestly, nothing.
It wasn’t like Matt had been a great listener, someone who gave solid advice, a guy I could rely on when I needed help with something.
In fact, I almost never saw Matt unless he was asking for something from me. Money, time, connections.
