Chapter 14 - A Mother Who Wasn't Dead
Catherine insisted on a video call with Naomi present.
She appeared on the screen from a small apartment, silver hair neatly pinned behind her ears.
Her hands were unsteady, but her voice remained firm.
Eliam had told me she died in a highway accident when he was twenty-four.
She told us he stopped speaking to her after she confronted him about stealing from an elderly relative.
Years later, someone opened companies using her name and signatures.
“I didn't own Northline,” she said.
“I didn't even know it existed until a debt collector contacted me.”
She had been trying to repair her identity records.
Eliam's version of her death kept us from asking questions.
“Why didn't you find me?” I asked.
“I tried.”
She produced copies of returned letters sent to our old address.
The envelopes were marked recipient moved.
We had lived there at the time.
Eliam had intercepted them.
Catherine forwarded a scan of a notarized affidavit documenting the fraud she had reported.
She agreed to speak to investigators directly.
That evening, I stood in the spare bedroom of Naomi's home and realized how carefully Eliam had isolated me.
He had persuaded me my sister was greedy.
He had made his mother into a ghost.
He had framed my father's warnings as confusion.
And he had used my own trust as the easiest part of his plan.
Mara knocked softly.
“I know I made mistakes,” she said.
“So did I.”
For the first time since Dad's funeral, we embraced.
Then Mara pulled away.
“There's one more thing.”
I braced myself.
“Luke wasn't investigating only the business transfers.”
“What else?”
“He found life insurance policies.”
My mind went to the altered beneficiary form.
Mara's expression changed.
“One policy is on your life.”
I stared at her.
May you like
“And Eliam renewed it three weeks ago.”
