Lonnie was on the porch with a trash bag in his hand, and when I got out of the car with the blue folder under my arm, whatever he saw in my face made him go still.

“What’d the bank say, Susanna?” I came up the steps and looked my brother in the eye.

“They told me about the settlement.

The sixty-three thousand.

They told me about the building on Main Street.

And they told me you were in it with Delroy.”

He took a step back.

“Susanna — listen.