Chapter 17 - Margaret's Bargain
I asked Rebecca whether we could ever have a conversation with Mom that wasn't about paperwork or lawyers.
"You can," she said.
"But don't expect it to make the evidence disappear."
We met at a supervised mediation center, with counsel available and no discussion of facts under active criminal investigation.
Mom looked older than I remembered.
She wore no pearls.
For once she had chosen a plain blue cardigan instead of the expensive clothes she used as armor.
"I saw the bank video," I said.
She nodded.
"I know."
"And I know you signed later transfers."
Tears filled her eyes, but she held them back.
"I thought I could pay Daniel to leave us alone."
"With money that wasn't yours."
"Yes."
She looked at her hands.
"And then I convinced myself you wouldn't mind, because you had the Navy and your grandfather's house."
I wanted to shout.
Instead I asked the question that mattered more than money.
"Why didn't you visit me after the explosion?"
She covered her mouth.
For several seconds she couldn't answer.
"Your father said you'd sent word that you didn't want us there."
"I never said that."
She went utterly still.
"He told me you hated us."
I thought of Grandpa sitting by my hospital bed, while my mother had apparently been told I'd refused her.
I did not know whether she was telling the complete truth.
But the possibility that Dad had engineered our silence made my chest ache.
"You could have called me directly," I said.
"You had my number."
Mom bowed her head.
"I know."
I did not embrace her.
I did not tell her everything would be all right.
I said she needed to make her own choices now, without asking me to save her from them.
She agreed.
On the way out she slipped one final fact into our conversation.
"Robert kept Grandpa's original will in the office safe."
"The original is filed with the estate records," I said.
"Not that one."
She looked toward the closed door.
"A later version. He made sure nobody saw it."
That afternoon the estate attorney confirmed Grandpa had drafted a codicil shortly before his death.
A certified copy had never reached the ordinary probate folder.
The document's last page referred to a sealed statement explaining why he had placed the farmhouse in trust.
May you like
The original statement was still missing.
