Chapter 3
I did not sleep that night.
I sat in Grandma’s kitchen with Mom’s locket open on the table.
The inside looked wrong.
Vanessa’s honeymoon photo was gone.
I had torn it out the second we got home.
But the empty spaces felt worse.
Like someone had scraped my mother out of her own memory.
Grandma placed a mug of tea beside me.
“You should rest.”
“I can’t.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked on the second word.
That made me look up.
Grandma Eleanor never cracked.
She was eighty-one, silver-haired, sharp-tongued, and strong enough to make grown men apologize with one raised eyebrow.
But that night, she looked old.
“I should have checked the estate sooner,” she said.
I shook my head.
“You trusted Dad.”
“Yes,” she said. “That is the part I am ashamed of.”
I touched the locket.
“Did Mom really leave me money?”
Grandma sat down.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know exactly. Your mother had a separate account from before the marriage. She also named you beneficiary on part of her insurance.”
My throat tightened.
“Dad never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Grandma looked toward the dark window.
“Because grief makes people weak, and selfish people know when to reach.”
I wanted to defend him.
Some reflex from childhood.
Dad was tired.
Dad was sad.
Dad was lonely.
But then I remembered Vanessa wearing my mother’s necklace like a trophy.
I remembered Dad calling it “just jewelry.”
I remembered the missing pictures.
“I want everything back,” I said.
Grandma nodded.
“Then we fight clean.”
The next morning, we met Attorney Samuel Price.
He had handled Mom’s original will.
He looked exhausted before we even sat down.
“I wondered when this would happen,” he said.
Grandma’s eyes narrowed.
“You wondered?”
He sighed.
“Daniel stopped responding to my office after the funeral. I sent multiple letters asking to complete distribution of personal property and trust assets.”
My fingers went numb.
“You sent letters?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
“Your father’s house.”
The house I had still lived in then.
I never saw one.
Mr. Price opened a file.
“Your mother left specific items to Lily. The locket. Her engagement ring. Her journals. A cedar memory chest. The trust account held forty-eight thousand dollars at the time of her death.”
I stopped breathing.
Forty-eight thousand dollars.
Grandma’s hand covered mine.
Mr. Price continued.
“Daniel was not trustee. Your aunt Claire was.”
Grandma sat straighter.
“Claire?”
“Yes. But Daniel submitted a document stating Claire declined.”
Grandma whispered, “She never would.”
Mr. Price’s face hardened.
“That is what concerns me.”
He showed us the document.
Aunt Claire’s supposed signature curled at the bottom.
I knew immediately it was wrong.
Claire made her C like a crescent moon.
This one was sharp.
“That’s fake,” I said.
Mr. Price nodded slowly.
“We need Claire to confirm.”
Grandma called her from the parking lot.
Claire answered on speaker.
When Grandma explained, Claire went silent.
Then she said, “I never signed anything.”
My stomach dropped.
Dad had not just hidden the necklace.
He had forged his sister’s name.
Claire’s voice shook.
“Mom, where is Daniel?”
Grandma looked at me.
“At home with Vanessa, I assume.”
Claire said, “No. He just texted me. He wants to meet alone.”
“Do not go,” Mr. Price said quickly.
But Claire whispered, “I’m already here.”
The phone rustled.
Then we heard Dad’s voice in the background.
“Claire, give me the phone.”
Grandma stood.
“Claire?”
May you like
There was a scuffle.
Then the line went dead.
