Chapter 2 - Thirty-Three Thousand Dollars
I did not sleep that night.
Frederick finally drifted off around two in the morning.
Amy curled into a hospital chair beside him.
I sat near the window with my laptop open, looking through nearly a year of bank transfers.
Three thousand dollars.
Every month.
Same date.
Same account.
Teresa Bradley.
I remembered the first conversation clearly.
Frederick had only been three weeks old.
Amy was exhausted.
I was working sixty-hour weeks on a major commercial project downtown.
My mother had called me.
“You can’t expect Amy to manage everything while recovering from childbirth.”
For once, she had sounded compassionate.
“I can handle the household expenses.”
I had been grateful.
I had been stupid.
The next morning, an officer brought me copies of the documents taken from Mason.
One was labeled Durable Financial Power of Attorney.
Another appeared to authorize Teresa to manage certain property matters if I became unavailable.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
It was almost perfect.
But almost was not enough.
I knew immediately it was false.
The capital C in my signature always tilted left.
This one tilted right.
Someone had practiced it.
There was also a notary stamp.
The name underneath it was Denise Crawford.
I had never met anyone named Denise Crawford.
When Amy woke up, she found me staring at the pages.
“What is that?”
“A fake power of attorney.”
Her face lost color.
“Fake?”
“My mother was preparing to claim legal control over something.”
Amy sat slowly.
Then she looked toward Frederick.
“Connor, there’s something else.”
I closed the laptop.
“Tell me.”
She hesitated.
“Three weeks ago, Teresa asked me where we kept our important documents.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did you say?”
“I told her I didn’t know.”
“That was true?”
“Yes.”
I almost laughed from relief.
Our deed and original mortgage paperwork had been stored in a fireproof box inside my office closet.
At least, that was where I believed they were.
Until the police found the deed in Mason’s hands.
“How did she get into the box?”
Amy looked confused.
“What box?”
That question gave me the answer.
I had never told Amy where I kept it.
But years earlier, before we were married, my mother had helped me move into the house.
She knew.
When Frederick was discharged later that afternoon, we did not immediately go home.
The police were still documenting the property.
Instead, we stayed at a hotel near downtown Nashville.
For the first time since the party, Amy relaxed.
Only slightly.
She showered.
She changed clothes.
Then she sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the carpet.
“I’m sorry.”
I turned around.
“For what?”
“For ruining Frederick’s birthday.”
I crossed the room.
“You didn’t ruin anything.”
“Your family thinks I called the police.”
“I called the police.”
“They’ll say I made you do it.”
“I don’t care what they say.”
She looked at me.
“You used to care.”
That sentence landed harder than any accusation.
She was right.
I sat beside her.
“I did.”
Amy’s eyes filled with tears.
“I spent the last year trying to make your mother like me.”
I said nothing.
“I changed how I cooked.”
She looked down at her hands.
“I stopped wearing certain things around her because she said mothers shouldn’t dress for attention.”
My jaw tightened.
“She told me not to buy Frederick expensive toys because you worked too hard for your money.”
Amy gave a tiny, painful laugh.
“And all this time she was taking three thousand dollars every month.”
I put my face in my hands.
There was no defense for me.
I had failed to see what was happening inside my own family.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Mason.
CALL ME BEFORE TERESA GETS OUT.
I stared at it.
Then another arrived.
YOU DON’T KNOW HALF OF IT.
I called.
Mason answered on the first ring.
“Connor.”
“What did you mean?”
He breathed heavily.
“I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“The deed wasn’t the only document Teresa wanted.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What else?”
“Your life insurance.”
Amy looked at me from across the bed.
I stood.
“Why?”
Mason was silent.
Then he said the sentence that made every hair on my arms rise.
May you like
“Because she told everyone Amy would eventually be gone.”
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