Chapter 3 - THE NAME DAD DIDN’T WRITE
I read the sentence twice.
Margaret is not doing this alone.
I looked at Mom.
“Who was helping you?”
She stared at me as if I were the one betraying her.
“You’re standing in a church accusing your grieving mother because of a notebook.”
“Dad wrote it.”
“Dad was dying.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Because you weren’t there.”
That landed again.
She knew exactly where to strike.
Samuel saw it.
“Thomas expected you to use that.”
Mom snapped toward him.
“Shut your mouth.”
“He told me you would make her absence the weapon.”
Her face twisted.
“You think you knew my husband?”
“I knew him for forty-two years.”
“I was married to him for thirty-nine.”
“And somehow he trusted me with the letter.”
The vestibule doors opened.
My younger brother, Evan, stepped inside.
He looked exhausted.
“Can everyone stop?”
I stared at him.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That Mom blocked my calls.”
His eyes shifted.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“Evan.”
“I knew Dad didn’t always want the phone.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Mom stepped between us.
“Leave your brother out of this.”
That confirmed more than I wanted.
I looked at Evan.
“Did you know she changed Dad’s phone passcode?”
His silence answered me.
I felt something inside me fracture.
“You let me believe he hated me.”
“No.”
“You told me he was too tired.”
“He was.”
“You told me to stop calling.”
Evan swallowed.
“Mom said it was upsetting him.”
“Did Dad say that?”
“No.”
The church doors behind us opened again.
Several mourners were still inside.
Some pretended not to listen.
Most had stopped pretending.
I lowered my voice.
“Why?”
Evan looked at Mom.
She shook her head.
That was the moment I understood who Dad meant.
“You.”
Evan’s face fell.
“No.”
“You were helping her.”
“No, Claire.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I signed some paperwork.”
“What paperwork?”
“I don’t know.”
Samuel’s voice hardened.
“You signed documents without reading them?”
Evan glared at him.
“Stay out of this.”
“What documents?”
I repeated.
Evan finally looked at me.
“Power-of-attorney forms.”
My stomach dropped.
“For Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you signing?”
“I was a witness.”
Mom jumped in.
“Your father couldn’t manage things anymore.”
Samuel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Then why did his doctor certify him competent six days later?”
Mom froze.
I looked at Evan.
“What did the papers do?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’d better start remembering.”
Evan’s eyes filled with panic.
“They moved control of some accounts.”
“To whom?”
He said nothing.
Then Samuel answered.
“To Margaret.”
Mom grabbed her coat.
“I’m done with this.”
I stepped in front of her.
“No.”
She looked at me.
For the first time in my life, I did not see my mother.
I saw someone guarding a secret.
“Dad wrote that you weren’t alone.”
I glanced at Evan.
“Was he talking about you?”
Evan shook his head quickly.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Dad confronted the other person.”
Everything stopped.
“What other person?”
Evan looked toward our mother.
Mom whispered.
“Don’t.”
May you like
Evan ignored her.
“Uncle Raymond.”
