Page 60 of Atonement

David looked between us all. “Shall we continue?” We nodded in unison, and he took his place at the desk once more as Meyer and I also reclaimed our seats. Joshua dragged over another chair, placing it next to my Mom’s, and we sat in to hear the rest of the impossible conditions for Meyer, Anita, and Joshua to meet in order to obtain Conrad’s blood money.

Meyer

Joshua and I waited in the cold outside the Women’s Prison, scanning the parking lot for David’s car so we could go inside and speak with Anita. We hadn’t told her I’d be coming, or David, because we didn’t want her to insist on bringing her lawyer and fucking up the entire plan.

“Why would she agree to see you?” I asked him. It was suspicious to me that he had been able to arrange a meeting with her so easily.

“She still thinks I’m on Conrad’s side,” he said, bringing his gloved hands to his mouth and blowing into them. “Why couldn’t we wait in the car again?”

“I didn’t feel like it,” I lied. In reality, it gave me a little bit of pleasure to see him squirm in the cold, even if I was uncomfortable myself. After David finished reading the will, Joshua mumbled something about needing to make a phone call and practically ran out of the room. Since then, he’d done an exceptional job at avoiding all of us. Maddie was frustrated to hell—she was still deciding whether to chew him out or try to make peace—but I could tell hit hurt Eva deeply to see the son she thought was dead run away from her time and time again. “You should talk to your mother, you know.”

“She’s not my fucking mother. We have nothing in common except some DNA. I didn’t even know her until a few weeks ago.”

“You don’t share anything besides genetics with Conrad, but that was enough for you to concoct an elaborate multi-year revenge plan.”

He glared at me. “You don’t know shit about my motives, Meyer.”

“You’re right, I don’t. Why don’t you explain them to me?”

“I don’t owe you any kind of explanation for what I did.”

“Are you fucking shitting me?” Forgetting we were outside a federal penitentiary and likely being observed by upwards of twenty armed guards, I took a step closer to him and clenched my fists. “You helped Conrad take her. Torture her. Abuse her. You could have ended it all far easier that either of us could have.”

“You’re not really one to throw stones here. Or did you forget all the crimes you’re complicit in?” He stepped forward to meet me, reminding me of his height advantage. But I didn’t care if he threw me to the ground and beat my face to a pulp. I was sick of being threatened into submission.

“You know why I behaved the way I did, and I feel sick over it.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s your excuse?”

His lips twitched as he considered whether to answer me, exhaling clouds of white. “You had everything, Meyer.”

“Oh, fuck you. I lived in fear every fucking day of my life. Maddie says I have PTSD, you know that? They’re probably gonna give me more fucking head drugs. And I have to go totherapy.” I shuddered. I had no interest in sitting around explaining my feelings to some stranger, but Maddie insisted it would help me move past my lingering depression and urge to self harm.

He rolled his eyes. “Poor Meyer, growing up in a big house with all the money in the world. If only his daddy loved him.”

I acted before I decided to, hitting him square across the jaw with all the force in my body. His eyes went wide just before he tumbled to the ground. But he wasn’t down for long; he was back on his feet a second later. The fury was evident in his eyes, not that I gave a shit. I could barely see for how angry I was, and I would tear him apart right here even if it landed me in a prison cell of my own. But before he could lay so much as a finger on me, half a body appeared between us.

“Whatever it is you two need to work out, I suggest you do it somewhere there aren’t dozens of correctional officers watching your every move.” David glared at me, then Joshua, only lowering his arm and taking a step back when both of us nodded. He straightened his coat and adjusted his grip on his briefcase. “Now, let’s go inside and talk to Miss Schaf. I’ll read her the conditions of the will, and then the three of you can talk about how you want to proceed with the execution of your father’s extensive holdings.”

Joshua hadn’t stopped glaring at me, but we’d at least discussed this scenario enough times to know how we were going to present this to her. There was no way I was giving her a dime more than I had to.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said, and led the small procession into the prison.

*

“Absolutely not,” Anita said. “Five million is peanuts, Meyer. I can’t live on that.”

My sister looked like a stranger without her usual five pounds of makeup on. I honestly hadn’t even recognized her when we first walked into the interview room. That was fixed the moment she opened her mouth to demand why I was there; of course, at the mention of a will, she’d perked up considerably. Now, I was barely resisting the urge to lean across the table and rip out her hair by the roots.

“It’s more than you deserve. Or do you want me to tell the police about your involvement in Shawn’s death?”

“If you were going to turn me in, you would have done it already. I doubt there’s any evidence left to tie me back to that.”

I scowled. She was right, and she knew it. “You don’t need to worry about having anything to live on. You stick that five million in a high yield savings account and you’ll have more than enough to last you the rest of your life once you do get out of here.”

She’d taken the news that Joshua was our half brother surprisingly well, sneering at him a bit but then going right back to ignoring his existence completely. She was irritated about splitting up the money more than she had to, but I’d made it clear I never intended to let her walk away with anywhere near a third of what was left.

“I want one hundred million.”

Even Joshua’s jaw dropped at that. “That’s not happening,” he snapped back. The venom he spoke with took me aback. I knew he wanted money for himself, but this was more than greed in his voice.

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