“I thought he was just talking.”

“Your dad used that paper to sell the creek lot to the grain elevator company,” I said.

“He got sixty thousand dollars for it,” Nate said.

“He gave twenty thousand to Kim,” I said.

“And twenty thousand each to Jeff and Stacy.”

Nate stood very still under the cold fluorescent lights of the basement room.

His ears turned a bright, dark red against the sides of his head, glowing under his short brown hair.

“He knew I’d never check the courthouse records,” Nate said.