Chapter 11 - What Happened Before Grandma Died
I did not accuse my mother of causing my grandmother’s death.
I refused to make a leap simply because I was angry.
But I needed answers.
My grandmother had died after a stroke.
That was what I had always been told.
The new documents did not change that fact.
They changed everything surrounding it.
Three days before the stroke, she had requested a meeting with an attorney.
That meeting never happened.
The morning she was supposed to attend, my mother moved her from her own home into a private care facility.
My father said it was because she seemed confused.
My mother said doctors recommended it.
Alexander asked for the doctor’s name.
My mother refused.
Lucas found it in the old records.
Dr. Samuel Greene.
Rebecca called his former practice.
He had retired, but he was alive.
By noon, he agreed to speak with us by video.
His face appeared on a laptop in my father’s office.
He remembered my grandmother immediately.
“Margaret Bennett.”
He smiled sadly.
“Very sharp woman.”
My mother went rigid.
“Was she mentally incompetent?”
Dr. Greene frowned.
“No.”
My father stared at the screen.
“She had memory issues.”
“Mild ones.”
“Nothing that prevented her from handling decisions.”
I looked at my mother.
She looked away.
Dr. Greene continued.
“I actually recommended against removing her from her home.”
My father whispered.
“What?”
“I believed the disruption would cause unnecessary stress.”
He checked something in his records.
“There was a family member pushing strongly for placement.”
Everyone looked at Catherine.
Dr. Greene seemed unaware of the tension.
“I remember because Mrs. Bennett was angry.”
“She told me she had discovered money missing.”
My hands turned cold.
“Did she say whose money?”
“Yes.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Her granddaughter’s.”
The room went silent.
My mother finally snapped.
“This has nothing to do with Lucas’s wedding.”
I almost admired the desperation of that sentence.
Everything was connected, and she still wanted to pretend the problem was scheduling.
Dr. Greene added one final detail.
“Mrs. Bennett asked me to contact an attorney named Evelyn Price.”
Alexander searched the name.
Rebecca did the same.
Evelyn Price had died two years earlier.
But her law firm still existed.
Alexander called.
Ten minutes later, Rebecca received confirmation.
The firm had retained a sealed client file.
It could only be released to one person.
Me.
My mother stepped forward.
“You don’t need to open it today.”
That told me I absolutely did.
Rebecca arranged for the file to be delivered.
Lucas looked at the clock.
Four hours until the ceremony.
Sophie was still waiting.
My family was falling apart inside a factory office.
And somewhere across town, three hundred guests believed they were attending a wedding.
At one-thirty, a courier arrived.
He handed me a sealed envelope.
May you like
Across the front were seven words written by my grandmother.
IF CATHERINE SAYS I WAS CONFUSED, READ THIS.
