Despite everything, I nearly smiled.
“That’s the one place your mother refuses to look.”
Ellen gave me a tired glare.
“Because every drawer is full of screws you insist have different purposes.”
“They do have different purposes.”
Marcy laughed.
A quiet laugh.
But real.
And hearing it again felt like opening a window in a closed room.
Then her expression turned serious.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The account receiving the money wasn’t Dustin’s.”
“His uncle?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“That’s what I thought at first.”
My stomach tightened.
“Whose was it?”
“I don’t know. It was registered to an LLC.”
“What name?”
She hesitated.
“Mercer Athletic Consulting.”
Ray Mercer.
The coach who had just told me he owned the gym.
The coach who claimed he knew nothing about missing money.
I sat back slowly.
Maybe Ray had been helping me.
Maybe he had been protecting himself.
