“Well, I didn’t know,” said Stan defensively. “I got out of the room as fast as I could. I felt very … uncomfortable.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Joy.
“I thought you’d laugh at me,” said Stan, and Joy’s stomach lurched with love and guilt because he was right, she would have laughed. It would have been inconceivable. It still felt inconceivable. How far would Savannah have taken it if Stan had responded?
“That’s why you wanted her to leave,” said Joy.
“I felt sick about it.”
“Oh, Stan,” said Joy. She went and put her arms around him and put her face to his chest.
He stood for a moment and then put his arms around her.
“I can’t believe Troy,” said Stan. “He handed over money before he even asked me if it was true. He thought I’d thank him. I said, ‘Mate, that was borderline moronic.’”
Joy stepped back and out of his arms. He never gave Troy the benefit of the doubt. Borderline moronic. What a thing to say to his own son who was only trying to help.
She said, “Stan. He obviously thought he was protecting you. Protecting me.”
Troy thought he was giving them a gift. She thought of Troy’s hopeful face whenever he watched a family member open one of his thoughtful gifts.
“How much money did he give her?” asked Joy. She sat back down on Savannah’s bed.
“He said it wasn’t that much,” said Stan. “It couldn’t have been that much. It wasn’t like she was covering up a murder.”
“Did he write her a check?” asked Joy. “Can’t he cancel it?”
“I don’t think he has a checkbook. No one writes checks anymore.” Stan sat down next to her on the side of the bed. “I think he transferred it straight into some kind of account. The height of stupidity. You know what Troy said to me when I finally convinced him he’d been scammed? He said he didn’t care. He can afford it.”
“He only wants to impress you.” Joy sighed.
“Yeah, well, that didn’t impress me. It was dumb. And disrespectful. To you and me. To our marriage. For him to think that I would … in our own home…”
His voice trembled and her heart softened again. It was always like this with Troy and Stan. She was caught in the middle, her sympathy flying back and forth like a ball.
She put her hand on his thigh, and they sat in silence for a moment.
“So … what happens now? Where is Savannah?” asked Joy.
“I don’t know where Savannah is,” said Stan. “But I told Troy to call his brother and sisters, and get them over here now, so we can discuss next steps.”
Discuss next steps. He was puffed up with the self-righteousness of a wronged man. A rarely wronged man.
“We need to be sure nobody else is handing over their hard-earned cash,” Stan continued. “We obviously need to get the police involved.”
“Oh, I don’t know if that’s necessary.”
“You need to check our bank accounts. She’s probably had plenty of opportunities when you were out of the room to go through your purse and take all your credit card details.”
Joy decided not to mention that not only had Savannah had plenty of opportunities to do exactly that, but she’d literally handed her credit card to Savannah on multiple occasions.
“All her things are here.” Joy looked around her at the neat room. “Surely she won’t just leave them.” She picked up Savannah’s pillow and hugged it to her. “I think she might have some sort of eating disorder.”
“Eating disorder?” Stan said eating disorder like it was some kind of newfangled fashion choice. “Who cares if she has an eating disorder! She just blackmailed our son!”
“Oh, well,” said Joy, trying to imagine what in the world they would say to her. She didn’t feel angry so much as blindsided. It felt like there had to be another explanation.
“Oh, well? Joy, did you seriously just say, Oh, well?”