The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,23
keepsake would have brought Lucy all the way to Colorado.
Lucy leaned forward slightly and grimaced.
Instinctively, Katie Ann took a step toward her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, just a hard kick from the little one.”
Lucy smiled a bit, and Katie Ann stiffened. But despite her resentment of Lucy, she asked her if she would like to sit down.
“Thank you.” Lucy kept her coat on, thankfully, and sat down on the couch.
Katie Ann sat in the rocking chair across from her. “Lucy, I’m sure you didn’t come here to show me Ivan’s box.” She folded her hands in her lap, bit her bottom lip, and waited.
“Actually, it’s what I found in the box.” Lucy unlatched the tiny clasp and pulled out a photograph. She reached across the coffee table and handed it to Katie Ann, who took it hesitantly. It was a picture of a house, a beautiful white house with black shutters and a white picket fence.
Katie Ann handed the picture back to her. “Why are you showing me this?”
Lucy’s voice wavered as she spoke, her eyes watering. “I was hoping you might know where this house is.” She reached back into the box and pulled out two keys. “These keys were in the box also. I think Ivan bought us a house somewhere, and—”
Katie Ann blinked her eyes a few times. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Katie Ann. I’m so sorry. But our bank account is wiped out, and I think Ivan used the money that was in there to purchase this house. But I have no idea where it is. I know that sounds crazy, but I can’t afford to keep making the mortgage on our current house. They’ve cut my hours at the café, and I’ll need to stop working when the baby comes.”
Katie Ann rubbed her forehead and tried to picture Ivan cleaning out their bank account. “That doesn’t sound like Ivan.”
“The money was his. I mean, I had very little when we moved in together. So it isn’t like he stole my money or anything.” Lucy stood up. “I think he was planning to surprise me with a new home.”
Katie Ann thought about all the ways Ivan used to surprise her in the past, whether just a bouquet of flowers, or even once a new buggy. She thought for a moment. “That doesn’t make any sense. Ivan would have put your house on the market to sell before he invested money to build a new one.” Katie Ann shook her head. “I can’t believe this is what you came here to talk to me about.”
She wondered how much money Ivan had put in Lucy’s bank account. He’d told her he left with very little, but Katie Ann had never been familiar with their finances . . . until she’d started to run out of money several months after Ivan left her. Then the mysterious box of money showed up on her doorstep.
“After Ivan was killed, I went to check our bank account,” Lucy said. “His landscaping company had been doing very well, and the money he’d been saving was gone. I haven’t made a mortgage payment since he died. We bought the house I’m in together, and I can’t afford it on my own. I’m going to lose my home, and I’m pregnant. So if I don’t find out if this is our house, I’m going to be homeless.”
Katie Ann tried to absorb what Lucy was saying, but it still didn’t make sense. “If Ivan bought a house, there would be some paperwork or something. How could you not know about it?”
Lucy raised her palms in the air. “Exactly. I was wondering if you knew anything about it.”
“Why would I know? Ivan left me a year ago.” Katie Ann reached down, picked up the picture from the box on the coffee table again, and stared at it, resentment filling every pore.
Lucy sat down and put her head in her hands. “I don’t know. It was a long shot coming here. But I have no paperwork, nothing. Just money missing, a picture of a house, and two keys. It was the only thing I could think of, that Ivan used the money to buy us another house, then died before he had a chance to tell me about it.” Lucy started to sob. “I’m going to have a baby, and I’m going to lose my house. I never even wanted . . .” She stopped and looked up at Katie Ann, and her face reddened.