Chapter 15 — The Refinance

My father pushed a legal folder at me.

“The bank needs you as a co-signer to refinance the mortgage.

A temporary formality.

A few months.”

The number on the loan was $450,000.

“You want to use my income and my credit,” I said slowly, “because yours are gone.”

I let the number sit between us on the porch, because the number was the whole confession.

Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

They had not come to apologize, or to explain the ledger, or to ask after their grandson.