Leah called the number.
She stayed by the coat hooks, listening to it ring. She could hear Anna's sewing machine above her. The ordinary noise made the message seem almost stupid. Someone she did not know had written a sentence that could mean anything.
The call rang out. Leah typed, Who is this? What do you think you know?
She pressed send and opened the message again. Her sister knew what happened. Her sister had already said he abandoned her.
‘Everything all right?’ Daniel asked from the sitting-room door.
Leah turned the screen towards her chest. ‘I don't know yet.’
He glanced at the stairs. ‘Do you want Anna?’
‘I'm going to ask her something.’
He stepped aside. She appreciated it enough to feel a sharp wish to show him the phone, but she wanted Anna's answer before anyone else's.
As Leah reached the landing, a reply appeared.
Ask her what was missing from the envelope in your bedroom drawer.
Leah stopped.
The envelope had been thick brown paper. Owen had folded it over twice and written Us on the front. She had teased him for making it look like a very small ransom demand. The money was for their wedding: £2,400, saved in cash because several people they had booked wanted cash on the day, and because Owen liked them to be able to count it together.
Leah had liked that too. The pleasure of putting something by. The little stack getting larger. She had last counted it the weekend before he left.
On the Monday Anna collected her wedding outfit, Leah had told her to take the fitting money from that envelope if she needed to pay on collection.
She called the unfamiliar number again. It rang without an answer.
Tell me your name, she wrote.
Then she went into the room where Anna worked.
The sewing machine stood on a narrow table beneath the window. Fabric covered most of the bed and floor. A pillow and a folded blanket lay clear of it at one end of the bed. Anna had both hands on a green sleeve, guiding it under the needle. She lifted her head.
‘Good film?’
Leah closed the door.
Anna took her foot off the pedal.
‘What happened to the money in our drawer?’ Leah asked.
Anna did not look at the phone. She looked at Leah's face.
‘Who told you?’
‘Answer me.’
Anna pulled the sleeve out of the machine. The thread stretched between them until she cut it.
‘Owen took it.’
Leah waited for the rest. Anna put the scissors down.
‘He said he meant to replace it.’
‘All of it?’
‘Yes.’
Leah looked at the green material. There were small pins along the cuff. Her eyes would not settle on Anna.
‘Was it gone when you collected the dress?’
‘I opened the envelope because you said I could take the fitting money. There was nothing in it. I asked him where it was.’
‘And he said he'd taken it.’
‘Not straight away. He said he'd put it somewhere else. Then he stopped saying that.’
Leah sat on the edge of the bed, pushing aside a piece of cloth. The fund had not been a fortune. It had been months of choosing cheaper things and taking extra work when she was tired. They had counted it together. He had let her count it.
‘What for?’
‘A debt. His own. He didn't tell me all the details. He said he'd been stupid, and it had to be paid.’
‘So why didn't you tell me?’
Anna got up, then seemed to realise there was nowhere useful to go. She leaned against the table.
‘I called Mum. I was angry. She said to give him ten days to get it back. He could go away, find the money, then come and tell you with it in his hand.’
‘You and Mum decided that.’
‘Yes.’
‘Without me.’
‘Yes.’
Anna's plain answers hurt more than an argument would have. Leah could see her sister taking the sensible position in a room Leah had never been invited into.
‘He agreed?’
‘He promised me he'd repay it and tell you. Ten days. He agreed to go.’
‘Today is ten days.’
Anna nodded.
Leah looked at her phone. The unknown sender had not replied to her request for a name.
‘Did you send this?’ She held it out.
Anna read it and shook her head. ‘No. I was going to tell you tonight. I rang Mum before you got back. I said I was asking you whether he could bring the money here tomorrow. If you agreed, I was going to ring him. I had to tell you what I'd done.’
‘Why ask her?’
‘I wasn't asking her permission. I told her she couldn't keep answering for you.’
Leah gave a short laugh. ‘After ten days?’
‘Yes. After ten days.’
‘Why would Owen text me that he'd left me if the plan was to come back?’
‘I don't know why he sent that. He didn't tell me. Mum told me she'd spoken to you. She said you knew about the money and didn't want him back.’
Leah stared at her. ‘I didn't.’
‘I know.’
‘When did you find out I didn't know?’
Anna touched one of the pencils in her hair, then let her hand fall.
‘Tuesday. When you asked me.’
The room seemed to become very still.
‘I told you I didn't know what happened.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you said you hadn't spoken to him about us.’
‘I lied.’
Leah stood up. The fabric slid off her knee and fell between them.
‘You watched me blame myself. You held my hand.’
Anna's face changed. ‘I didn't want you to blame yourself.’
‘Then that would have been a good time to tell me he stole our wedding money.’
‘It would.’
‘Don't just agree with everything. Tell me why.’
Anna pressed her palms against the table behind her.
‘Because you had just come here. You wanted to be with me, and I wanted you to stay wanting that. I knew you'd be furious with me.’
‘You were right.’
‘I wanted Mum to tell you. It was her idea first, and I wanted her to have to say it. I let you think I hadn't done anything.’
Leah remembered Anna pinning the cream jacket. That little glance towards the trunk. She had thought her sister was uncomfortable with seeing her cry. Anna had been deciding whether to tell her the truth.
‘Were you involved with him?’ Leah asked.
Anna pulled away from the table. ‘No.’
‘If there's something else, say it now.’
‘There isn't an affair. I didn't sleep with him. I didn't want him. I wanted him to put the money back and tell you.’
‘And Daniel?’
‘He doesn't know about the money. He thinks your engagement ended. I haven't told him about going to the flat, or the ten days.’
Leah looked at the closed door. Daniel had asked if she wanted her sister. It was such a small thing to remember now, but she held on to it.
‘Where's Owen?’
‘He said he'd go to Bristol. Mum said he was staying there. I haven't seen him or spoken to him since that Monday.’
‘He told me Bristol too.’
‘Then that's where I think he is. I don't have an address.’
‘Did you tell him not to contact me?’
Anna shook her head. ‘I told him he had ten days to repay it and confess. I should have called you from the flat. I shouldn't have agreed to any of it.’
‘He could have called me.’
‘Yes.’
Leah walked to the window. Below her, the greenhouse was dark. The house had seemed like a place she could stop trying to work everything out. She had let Anna explain because Anna sounded as though she knew.
Behind her, her sister said, ‘I was going to ask you tonight. Really.’
‘You don't get to make that the good part.’
Anna said nothing.
Leah rubbed the heel of her hand against her forehead. There were too many questions, but they were ordinary ones. Why had Ruth said she knew? What had Ruth actually said to Owen? Had Owen looked at the envelope and chosen to lose her rather than tell her?
She wanted his answer in his own voice. She also wanted to hear her mother explain herself.
‘I'm calling Mum,’ she said.
Anna nodded.
‘You can tell Daniel in the morning. I don't want to be the one who explains your part.’
‘All right.’
Leah opened the door. Anna made a movement towards her, then stopped.
‘I'm sorry, Leah.’
Leah could not answer. She went across the landing to the room with the picture she liked, closed the door and called Ruth.