Chapter 3 - What Amy Never Told Me
I demanded that Mason meet us in person.
He refused.
“Teresa has people calling me every five minutes.”
“What people?”
“Family.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You think Betsy was just helping with the party?”
My mind flashed to Aunt Betsy laughing while Amy worked in the kitchen.
“What does Betsy have to do with this?”
“More than you think.”
Then Mason disconnected.
I called back twice.
No answer.
Amy sat quietly.
“Connor.”
I turned.
“There’s something I should have told you months ago.”
My stomach sank.
“What?”
She looked ashamed even though she had done nothing wrong.
“Your mother asked me to sign papers.”
“When?”
“About four months ago.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say they were?”
“She said they were insurance forms for Frederick.”
“Did you sign them?”
“No.”
Relief hit me so quickly that I had to sit down.
“Why not?”
“Because your name was already signed.”
I stared at her.
“Where?”
“On the bottom.”
“Did it look like my signature?”
“Yes.”
The room suddenly felt very small.
“What happened when you refused?”
“She got angry.”
“How angry?”
Amy swallowed.
“She said I was proving I wasn’t committed to the family.”
I stood and began pacing.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It didn’t make sense to me either.”
“What else?”
Amy looked toward the window.
“She asked whether we had a will.”
I stopped.
“When?”
“Around Christmas.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she said you had asked her to help organize everything.”
I cursed under my breath.
Teresa had been using my name like a weapon.
Every time Amy questioned her, she claimed I had approved it.
Every time I questioned why Amy seemed uncomfortable around my mother, Teresa told me Amy was emotional.
She had kept us separated by feeding each of us a different version of reality.
I sat beside Amy.
“From now on, if my mother says I told her something, you ask me directly.”
Amy gave me a sad look.
“I should have been doing that anyway.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I should have made you feel safe enough to do it.”
The next morning, we met Detective Hannah Cole from the Nashville Police Department’s financial crimes unit.
She had already reviewed the documents.
“This may be bigger than a family dispute.”
She placed photographs across the table.
The power of attorney.
Copies of my driver’s license.
A photocopy of my Social Security card.
Several mortgage statements.
Bank information.
A document listing Frederick as my dependent.
Then she showed me something that made my stomach turn.
A handwritten note.
HOUSE EQUITY EST. 420K.
RETIREMENT 186K.
LIFE INSURANCE 750K.
TOTAL ACCESS POTENTIAL 1.35M.
The handwriting belonged to my mother.
I knew it immediately.
Amy covered her mouth.
Detective Cole pointed toward the final line.
NEXT STEP AFTER BIRTHDAY.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
“Was she planning to transfer the house?”
“We’re investigating.”
“Can someone transfer a house with fake documents?”
“Fraud happens in many ways.”
She leaned forward.
“But what concerns me most is that these records show preparation.”
Amy whispered.
“For how long?”
Detective Cole looked at me.
“At least nine months.”
Nine months.
My son was one year old.
That meant my mother had begun planning this when Frederick was approximately three months old.
The realization made me physically nauseated.
Detective Cole slid another paper forward.
“This was found inside the folder.”
It was a printed email.
The sender was an address I did not recognize.
The recipient was my mother.
The subject line read:
RE: OCCUPANCY AND OWNERSHIP STRATEGY.
I looked up.
“What strategy?”
Detective Cole answered calmly.
“Your mother appears to have been trying to establish that she was financially responsible for your household.”
I remembered the birthday party.
The expensive food.
The decorations.
Her new dress.
Her announcement to everyone.
My son works hard.
He gives me the money because he trusts me to take care of this family.
It had sounded like bragging.
Now it sounded like evidence.
Detective Cole nodded slowly.
“That party may not have been random.”
Amy understood before I did.
“She wanted witnesses.”
Exactly.
My mother had invited twenty relatives into my house for a reason.
Not to celebrate Frederick.
May you like
To watch her act like the woman in charge.
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