The bills folded in thirds weren’t proof that Judy had been taking money. They were the way she handled cash. The extra bills in the can had been her attempts to put some back. She had come into the bedroom to count what was left and discovered how much was still missing.

“You let me blame her,” I said.

Dwayne rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I didn’t want you mad at me.”

“So you told me it was your mother.”

“I didn’t say I saw her take it.”

“You said everybody knew.”

He looked down at the porch steps. “I know.”

Judy gave a small, tired shake of her head. “I told him to stop. I told him this was the last time.”

Dwayne didn’t answer her. He looked at me instead, but I couldn’t help thinking about how easily he had given me a story that fit what I already feared about his mother.

“Why?” I asked.

He said he’d taken money from the can and spent some of it on scratch-off tickets. The can had been there, he said. He thought he could replace what he took before I noticed.

“You knew what that money was for.”

“I know.”

“You knew I was counting it.”

“I know.”

Judy stepped down one stair. “Don’t keep saying you know if you’re not going to do anything about it.”

Dwayne’s face tightened. For once, I didn’t rush to make his answer easier for him.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

I wanted to hear that and didn’t want it to be enough. “You let me be afraid of her for nine years. You let me think she was taking from our girl.”

“I didn’t mean for it to get like this.”

“It already was like this.”

Judy looked at me then. “I should’ve told you sooner.”

I didn’t have a clean answer for her. She had tried to put money back without telling me why, and she had let me keep blaming her. I could understand why she might have wanted to spare her son. I could also see that sparing him had left me in the dark.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. This time I meant that I had believed Dwayne’s story over what I’d seen in the can, though I still didn’t know how to say all of that without making it sound like an excuse.

Judy nodded once. “I know.”

I asked Dwayne to put back what he had taken. He said he would. I told him that wasn’t enough by itself, and that I wasn’t going to keep the braces money where either of us could treat it like spare cash. He didn’t argue. We would have to work out how to replace it, and how to handle money between us, without pretending the problem had been a misunderstanding.

Judy stayed on the porch while Dwayne and I went inside. She didn’t come in to finish the shirts. I didn’t ask her to.

The can held $240 when I counted it that Thursday. I had started the day believing Judy was the one taking from it. By the time I came back into the house, I knew my husband had let me blame his mother for what he had done.

Judy hadn’t taken the money. Dwayne had.