Her Bargain Rental Favor

“Three hundred dollars for rent just went through. Thanks, Claire.”

A text popped up on Claire’s phone from a contact saved as “Mark.”

I grabbed the phone before she could react and froze.

“Rent?” I asked. “You’ve been telling me every month that money was from your side job.”

Her face went stiff. She reached for the phone, trying to take it back.

“He was my sister Emily’s husband,” Claire said quickly. “After Emily died, he was left with two kids. I was only trying to help.”

My hand brushed against the anniversary gift in my pocket, and something inside me went cold.

“Which apartment is he paying rent for?”

Her lips parted, but it took her a long time to answer.

When she finally did, she gave me the name of a neighborhood.

My ears rang.

It was the downtown apartment my parents had left me. A spacious unit that could rent for ten thousand a month at market rate.

And she had leased it to her widowed brother-in-law for the absurdly low price of three hundred dollars.

Claire Whitman tried to snatch the phone back, but in her panic, she knocked over a whole pot of beef brisket soup.

I had spent three hours making that soup.

She loved it, so every year on our wedding anniversary, it was always on the table.

“Honey, please let me explain. I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”

She stepped over the mess on the floor and hurried toward me.

“But you know my sister Emily passed away three years ago. She left Mark with a son and a daughter.

“He doesn’t have a job, and he has to support himself and the kids. It’s been really hard for him...”

I tightened my grip on the phone and forced my voice to stay calm.

“So what exactly was your reason for keeping it from me?”

She stopped about three feet away from me.

Then she stammered, “I... I was afraid you’d misunderstand my relationship with Mark. I didn’t want to make you angry.”

I understood.

Mark had it hard, so she rented him an apartment worth ten thousand a month for only three hundred.

And I was petty and narrow-minded, so she had no choice but to hide the truth from me.

“How many years has he been renting it?”

“Three years. Since Emily died.”

“If it’s rent, then every weekend when you said you were going to help a friend with a part-time job, where were you actually going?”

Claire lowered her head, avoiding my eyes.

“To work overtime...”

“Lie again. There’s no overtime pay on any of your pay stubs.”

I tapped on the message, and the chat with Mark Lewis popped up.

Yesterday had been Sunday.

[Claire, Ben and Lily want sautéed lettuce. Can you teach me how to make it?]

She had replied within seconds.

[Mark, I’ll come over and make it for them. You’re not good in the kitchen. You might burn yourself.]

I kept scrolling.

There were records from almost every weekend morning before that.

[Claire, I want to buy Lily some underwear. Do you think this color looks nice?

I’ll come help you pick it out. Girls have sensitive skin, so the fabric matters more than the color.]

[Claire, I think Lily just got her first period. It’s not really appropriate for me to teach her about it. Can you come help?]

[Okay. I’ll be right there.]

Every conversation began with him calling for Claire and ended with her going over.

The screen was packed with messages. Just looking at them made me dizzy.

“Claire, our daughter wanted to eat a meal you made with your own hands. Every time she asked, you said you were too busy.

“A few days ago, Daisy had a fever. All she wanted was your egg fried rice. I made it for her several times, but she refused to eat it. I had no choice but to search every restaurant I could find before I finally found one that tasted close enough to yours and coaxed her into eating.

“And yet every weekend, you’re over there cooking for him and helping him with everything?”

Claire swallowed without realizing it.

“Honey, he’s a grown man raising a daughter. There isn’t a woman around him, so a lot of things are inconvenient...”

“Then where did my woman go?

“You went over there to help him. Was there any woman left by my side to take care of Daisy?”

I couldn’t stand hearing her use Mark’s misery as an excuse. I grabbed a pair of chopsticks and flung them at her face.

She panicked, but even when the chopsticks hit her, she didn’t dodge.

“Noah, don’t be angry. Daisy is still asleep...”

Suddenly, I found it almost funny.

So she did remember we had a child.

Then who exactly was this man raising a daughter alone with no woman around him?

The anger in my chest kept climbing. I picked up my own phone and called the property management office for that building.

Claire immediately tried to grab it.

I turned away from her and quickly finished explaining the situation, but the person on the other end let out a surprised sound.

“Mr. Bennett, the people living in your unit aren’t a family of three. It’s a family of six.”

For a moment, I remembered the one time I had met Mark’s family when Emily was still alive.