Chapter 4 - The Insurance Policy
Daniel was at my house before noon.
I gave him everything.
The videos.
The change-of-address information.
The business registration Chloe admitted using.
And the insurance envelope addressed to Mother.
He studied it longer than I expected.
“Do not open this.”
He said.
“I know.”
“But photograph the outside.”
I did.
Then we called the insurer.
I explained that I was the legal homeowner and that I had reason to believe someone had used my address without permission.
After several transfers, a representative confirmed something disturbing.
A quote had been requested using my property address.
The applicant claimed she would be residing there permanently.
Applicant name:
Evelyn Carter.
My mother.
“Did she insure the house?”
I asked.
The representative carefully explained that no active homeowner policy had replaced mine.
But my mother had attempted to purchase a renter-style personal property policy listing my house as her residence.
Daniel leaned forward.
“When was the application submitted?”
Wednesday.
The day before I changed the locks.
Mother had been preparing long before the moving trucks arrived.
We contacted the postal service.
We contacted Chloe’s business registration service.
We notified banks that no member of my family was an authorized resident.
By early afternoon, I was exhausted.
Then my phone began exploding.
Aunt Rebecca.
Uncle Tom.
Cousin Melissa.
Three family friends.
I didn’t answer any of them.
Finally, Rebecca texted.
HOW COULD YOU PUT YOUR OWN MOTHER ON THE STREET?
I read the message twice.
Then another arrived.
SHE SOLD HER HOUSE BECAUSE YOU PROMISED SHE COULD LIVE WITH YOU.
I stared at it.
My mother had sold her house?
I called Aunt Rebecca.
She answered immediately.
“What is wrong with you?”
She demanded.
“Did Mom sell her house?”
Silence.
“Audrey—”
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Closing was yesterday.”
I stood in the center of my kitchen.
The room seemed to tilt.
Mother had not mentioned selling.
Not once.
“Where is the money?”
I asked.
“What money?”
“From the sale.”
Rebecca sounded offended.
“That’s not your concern.”
“Then where Mom lives isn’t automatically my concern either.”
“You invited her.”
“No.”
“Yes, you did.”
“When?”
“At Easter.”
I remembered Easter.
I remembered Mother looking around my old apartment and saying she couldn’t wait until I bought somewhere bigger.
I had joked.
“When I finally get a real house, everybody can come over for Thanksgiving.”
That was it.
A dinner invitation.
Apparently Mother had transformed it into permanent housing.
“She says you told her the new house would be the family home.”
Rebecca said.
“I never said that.”
“Well, that’s not what she told us.”
I looked through the front window.
The driveway was empty now.
But the security camera had captured every second of the morning.
I suddenly wondered what else my mother had told everyone.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He listened.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
I asked when he ended the call.
“The county clerk’s office just contacted me.”
“Why?”
“Someone filed a notarized occupancy affidavit using your property address.”
My heart began pounding.
“Who?”
May you like
Daniel looked at me.
“Your mother.”
