Ted’s stomach did a somersault. “Wait. What are you saying? You knew?”

“Well, I knew they were going to be making some cuts. Everyone did.”

“Everyone” meant everyone in the family. Jill’s worldview could be very limited in some ways.

“And you made him promise to offer me a different job?” Ted said. “To keep me on?”

“Of course,” she said.

Of course, Ted thought.

Nine years later the memories still pained.

Lester cleared his throat. “You still with me? I thought you checked out for a minute.”

Ted shook his head in a forlorn attempt to dispel the ghosts. “Bad choices, Lester. I don’t blame anybody but myself.” Which wasn’t entirely true, but Ted wished it were. “I kept making bad choices until the bottom fell out. In the end, I settled for a bad deal rather than take my chances fighting an injustice.”

“You’re not the first. The deck is always stacked.”

“I wish I could say I’d make better—stronger—choices next time around. But I really don’t know.” Ted found his bottle of water and took a long slug. “Now it’s my turn.”

“What’s that?”

“The day we met. You were waiting for me. Meeting you—hiring you—was no accident. You made it happen.” The question was implicit.

“Truth?” Lester asked.

Ted laughed softly. “We’re talking after midnight, sitting in a church, and it’s a full moon. What do you think?”

“Truth is never as pretty as you think it’s going to be.”

“I’m listening,” Ted said. In the faint light from the sanctuary lamp, Lester’s bruises faded, and years were stripped away. He appeared younger, healthier, and a touch sadder. The rollback of time removed a layer of forbearance, revealing a man who had not yet learned to hide his disappointments.

Lester sat up and took a deep breath. “Richie Rubiano was a dope. Everybody knew he was working on something worth a million bucks. I didn’t know what it was about or how this shit worked, but I wanted some of it. I’ve got nothing else. An ex-wife and two kids who wouldn’t know me if they had to step over me lying on the sidewalk and a room in a flop that’s only mine as long as I can pay a week in advance. So I put myself in front of you, figuring you were my best shot at getting a piece of that.”

“You wanted a cut?”

“Truth, right? A cut? At a minimum. If I thought I could have conned you out of all of it, I was ready to go down that road. Hell, you worked with Richie. I figured you must be a scammer yourself, and that meant fair game.”

Ted let a beat go by, waiting for Lester to continue. When he didn’t, Ted asked, “What changed your mind?”