The room went quiet.

Eva had pressed herself into the corner of the couch beside Lily, one small hand resting on Lily's arm.

She didn't understand what the adults were saying.

But she understood the silence.

William turned to his sister.

"Lily."

Lily was looking at Sandra.

Her jaw was tight.

"Lily.

What did you come here to tell me?"

She pulled her eyes away from Sandra and looked at her brother.

For a moment she said nothing.

Then she reached into the front pocket of her dirty jeans and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

It was soft at the creases, worn from being handled many times.

She held it out to him.

He took it.

Unfolded it.

It was a photograph.

Printed on plain paper, slightly blurred, like a screenshot taken from a phone.

It showed two people sitting together at a restaurant table.

A man and a woman.

The man had his hand over the woman's hand on the table.

They were leaning toward each other.

The man was William's business partner.

Daniel.

The woman was Sandra.

"That was taken eight months ago," Lily said.

"A friend of mine works near that restaurant.

She recognized Sandra and sent it to me.

I didn't want to believe it.

So I waited.

I looked into it more.

And then I found the bank records."

"What bank records?" William said.

"Your joint account.

The one you use for the household.

Sandra has been moving money out of it for fourteen months.

Small amounts, never the same number twice.

But I added it up." She reached into her pocket again and took out a second folded paper.

"Sixty-three thousand dollars."

William did not move.

"She's been moving it into a private account," Lily said.

"I found the account number.

It's in both her name and Daniel's."

The paper shook slightly in William's hand.

He looked up at Sandra.

She had not changed her expression.

She was watching him the way someone watches a door they are waiting to open.

"Is this true?" he said.

"William—"

"Is this true?"

"You need to let me explain the context—"

"Sandra." His voice dropped to almost nothing.

"Is this true?"

She uncrossed her arms.

She placed her hands back on the table.

She looked at the photograph in his hand and then back at his face.

"Daniel and I have been close for a long time," she said.

"You were never home.

You were always working.

I was alone in this house with a child and you were—"

"Sixty-three thousand dollars," William said.

"It was my money too.

I contributed to that account."

"You contributed eleven thousand of it.

I have the records."

"Then you already know," Sandra said.

"So why are you asking me?"

William set the papers down on the kitchen table.

He looked at them for a moment.

Then he looked at his daughter.

Eva was watching him.

Her eyes were wide and very still.

He walked to the couch and crouched down in front of Eva.

"I need you to do something for me," he said quietly.

"Can you take Aunt Lily to your room?

Help her get comfortable.

Watch a movie.

Can you do that?"

Eva nodded.

She slipped off the couch and took Lily's hand.

Lily stood slowly, leaning on Eva's small shoulder more than she should have needed to.

At the doorway to the hall she stopped and looked back at William.

"There's more," she said.

"I didn't get to tell you all of it before she—" She stopped.

Looked at Sandra.

"Before I ended up down there."

"Tell me later," William said.

"Go rest."

Lily held his gaze for one more second.

Then she let Eva lead her down the hall.

William waited until he heard the bedroom door close.

Then he turned back to Sandra.

She was already on her feet.

She had her phone in her hand.

"I'm calling Daniel," she said.

"You need to hear his side of this."

"Put the phone down."

"William, you're not thinking clearly right now—"

"If you dial that number," he said, "I will call the police before he picks up."

Her thumb stopped moving on the screen.

"The bolt on that panel is new," William said.

"Lily has been under this floor for three days without food or water except what a six-year-old managed to sneak her.

That is not a domestic disagreement.

That is a crjme."

Sandra's face changed.

For the first time, something cracked in it.

"You wouldn't," she said.

"Put the phone down."

She set it on the table.

Slowly.

"Now," William said.

"You're going to tell me everything.

Starting with Daniel.

And then you're going to tell me what else Lily found."

Sandra sat back down.

She folded her hands.

And then she said something William had not expected.

"Before I tell you anything," she said quietly, "you should know that Daniel isn't the only one who knows where the rest of the money went."

William looked at her.

"What rest of the money?"

Sandra looked at the hallway where Lily and Eva had disappeared.

"Ask your sister," she said, "about your mother's house."