Chapter 4

My own mother had known.

“You knew?”

Denise quickly shook her head.

“Claire, please.”

“You knew Grandma sent money for Lily and me?”

“I didn’t know how much at first.”

My voice cracked.

“That isn’t what I asked.”

She finally looked at me.

“Yes.”

One word.

That was enough.

Something inside me broke quietly.

I remembered calling her after Evan died.

Telling her I was behind on rent.

Asking whether she could watch Lily for two days so I could take a temporary bookkeeping job.

She had said she was too busy.

She knew.

All that time, she knew.

Grandma stood.

“You took money intended for your widowed daughter and infant granddaughter?”

Denise started crying.

“I made a terrible mistake.”

Grandma’s face remained firm.

“A mistake is forgetting an appointment. This required decisions.”

“Patricia told me Claire would waste it.”

My head snapped toward my aunt.

Patricia protested immediately.

“That is not what I said.”

“Yes, it is!” Mom shouted.

For the first time that night, Patricia lost control.

“You agreed with me!”

The sisters stared at each other.

Then everything spilled out.

Patricia claimed Mom had been jealous because Grandma always admired my independence.

Mom accused Patricia of saying I didn’t deserve the money because I had “chosen” to distance myself from the family.

Patricia accused Mom of taking sixty-one thousand dollars for debts.

Mom accused Patricia of keeping nearly twice as much.

They weren’t protecting each other anymore.

They were exposing each other.

Grandma listened for less than a minute.

Then she raised her hand.

“Enough.”

The room went silent.

She turned to me.

I expected anger.

Instead, I saw heartbreak.

“Claire, I owe you an apology.”

I shook my head.

“You didn’t know.”

“I should have made certain.”

Her voice trembled slightly.

“I trusted someone else to deliver help when I should have called you myself.”

I looked down at Lily.

“I should have called you too.”

Grandma sat beside me.

“Why didn’t you?”

There was no accusation in the question.

So I answered honestly.

“Because everyone kept telling me you were disappointed in me.”

Her face changed.

“What?”

I looked at Mom.

She immediately turned away.

“After Evan died, Mom said you thought I had made irresponsible choices. Patricia told me you believed I should solve my own problems.”

Grandma stared at her daughters.

“I never said either of those things.”

My chest tightened.

Two years.

Two years of silence suddenly looked entirely different.

They hadn’t only taken money.

They had kept Grandma and me apart.

Richard cleared his throat.

“There is something else.”

Patricia whispered, “Richard, don’t.”

That told me we still hadn’t reached the bottom.

He opened the final section of the folder.

“When Margaret asked us to retrieve the transfer records, Clara noticed several communications that had been preserved with the transaction.”

He handed printed copies to Grandma.

“Emails.”

Grandma read the first page.

Then the second.

Her expression grew colder with every line.

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