Chapter 16 - THE MOTHER WHO KNEW
Grant drove to his mother's apartment before breakfast.
She opened the door wearing a silk robe and a defensive smile.
"I told you not to come here," she said.
Grant held up the note.
"Who paid for it?"
Her smile vanished.
She claimed not to understand.
He produced a copy of the purported deed.
"You found it. You said it was real. Who made it?"
She sat down without inviting him in.
After a long silence, she admitted paying an unlicensed document preparer to create paperwork she hoped would pressure Wade into a settlement.
"I didn't think anyone would check," she whispered.
Grant almost laughed.
It was the same contempt for other people's diligence that had destroyed his own career.
"You have made everything worse," he said.
"You told me to save your house."
"It was never my house!"
The truth escaped him so violently that both of them stopped breathing.
For the first time he had said it aloud.
His mother began to cry, but Grant recognized an old performance.
He had learned many of its gestures from her.
He left without an embrace.
His attorney later explained that the admission required careful legal handling and that false documents could expose more than one person to serious consequences.
Grant wanted to claim ignorance.
The attorney reminded him that he had already submitted and defended the deed.
"My mother did it," Grant protested.
"That may be relevant," the lawyer answered. "It does not erase what you did."
At the same time, Eliza received a settlement proposal.
Grant offered to give up his claim to the property if she withdrew allegations and supported a statement describing the dinner assault as a mutual misunderstanding.
He also wanted access to Owen without current safeguards.
Eliza read the conditions twice.
"He thinks my child's safety is something to trade for a house he never owned," she said.
Her attorney asked whether she wished to counter.
"On money and property, through counsel," Eliza answered. "Not on the truth."
She declined the proposed retraction.
That night a message came from a number she did not recognize.
It contained a voice recording of Grant's mother saying the papers were designed to frighten the Harrows.
The recording was followed by a brief message.
There is more you should know about the 2.4 million.
May you like
Eliza handed the phone to her lawyer before replying.
