The mark under the table matched one in the timber office ledger. Rafi thought he could finally prove that his father used valuable woodland stock without permission. The suspicion had followed the family since an argument with his employer.
The ledger's entry referred to a rejected beam sold as damaged material. Its price was small, and the buyer's initials matched his father's. A receipt survived in a folder of household repairs, folded so the amount faced inward. The table had been made from wood the office did not want.
Rafi inspected the repaired split along its underside. His father's work had made the flaw almost invisible from above. The receipt settled the purchase but not the old argument, which may have concerned something entirely different.
He placed a copy of the receipt under the table in a clear sleeve. At dinner, nobody could see it, and he decided that was appropriate. The table's ordinary usefulness did not need to become a public defense. The evidence would be there for anyone who asked, instead of leaving another generation to mistake a durable accusation for a documented fact.