Chapter 6
The next few days were a blur of activity.
I installed the security system.
Changed all our passwords.
Opened new bank accounts.
My mother had been receiving my money directly for months.
I couldn't risk her having access to anything else.
Sarah filed the civil lawsuit.
The district attorney added more criminal charges based on the notebook.
And then the calls started.
Relatives I hadn't spoken to in years.
Begging me to drop the charges.
Telling me I was tearing the family apart.
"She's your mother, Connor," my uncle Ray said over the phone.
"Family doesn't do this to family."
I almost laughed.
Family?
Where was family when my wife was being humiliated?
Where was family when my son was sick and no one cared?
Where was family when they were planning to steal my house and my child?
"She's not family," I said coldly.
"Not anymore."
I hung up.
Then I blocked his number.
Aunt Betsy called next.
She was crying.
"Connor, please," she sobbed.
"We didn't know what she was planning."
"We just thought she was being a good mother-in-law."
I thought about the party.
About Aunt Betsy laughing as she told everyone Amy was in the kitchen earning her place.
"You knew," I said.
"You stood there and you laughed while she suffered."
"You're just as guilty as she is."
I hung up and blocked her too.
One by one, they called.
One by one, I blocked them.
All of them.
Every single relative who had been at that party.
Every single one who had watched and said nothing.
They weren't family.
Family protects each other.
Family doesn't turn a blind eye to abuse.
Family doesn't help steal from their own.
Amy watched me from the kitchen.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
I nodded.
"I'm better than okay."
"I'm free."
She smiled.
A small, genuine smile.
The first one I had seen in months.
That afternoon, the police called.
Mason was ready to talk.
He wanted to make a deal.
I went down to the station with Sarah.
Mason sat across from us in an interrogation room.
He looked small.
Defeated.
Not the arrogant cousin I remembered from the party.
"I'll tell you everything," he said.
"Everything she planned."
"But I need immunity."
Sarah looked at me.
I nodded.
If Mason's testimony could put my mother away for good, it was worth it.
"Start talking," Sarah said.
Mason took a deep breath.
"Your mother approached me about six months ago," he began.
"Said she had a plan to get what was 'rightfully hers.'"
"She said you were wasting your life on Amy and the baby."
"That you needed someone to look out for your interests."
He paused.
"I needed money," he admitted.
"I have gambling debts. Your mother offered to pay them off if I helped her."
"What did she ask you to do?" I asked.
My voice was calm.
Cold.
Mason wouldn't look me in the eye.
"First, she wanted me to find out everything about your finances."
"Where you banked. How much you made. What you owned."
"Then, she wanted me to get the deed to the house."
"She had a contact who could forge signatures."
"We were going to transfer the house into her name."
"Then sell it."
"Split the money."
I felt my hands clench into fists.
"What about my son?" I asked.
Mason hesitated.
"She... she said she was going to file for guardianship."
"Said Amy was mentally unstable."
"She had been documenting everything."
"Every time Amy cried. Every time she was tired."
"She was building a case."
"She thought the courts would give her the baby."
"Then she could get child support from you."
"Control you forever."
I stood up.
I couldn't listen anymore.
I walked out of the interrogation room.
Sarah followed me.
"Connor," she said gently.
"I know this is hard."
"But his testimony is devastating."
"With the notebook and his statement, your mother doesn't have a chance."
I took a deep breath.
"I know," I said.
"I just... I can't believe my own mother would do this."
Sarah put a hand on my arm.
"Some people don't know how to love," she said.
"They only know how to take."
"Your mother is one of those people."
"And you're not responsible for her choices."
I nodded.
She was right.
I wasn't responsible for my mother.
But I was responsible for my wife and son.
May you like
And I was going to make sure they were safe.
Forever.
