The drawer glided out on oiled steel runners.

Inside sat four manila folders stacked neatly under a pair of household scissors and an unused pad of notary stamps.

I drew out the folder labeled Mortgage and Equity Records.

On top was a formal notice from our main mortgage lender, dated twenty-one days earlier.

It was an official application to raise the second line of credit against the house equity by forty thousand dollars.

On page three, Daniel’s signature sat on the primary borrower line in heavy black ink.