Chapter 2
I felt Lily’s fingers tighten around mine.
Vivian’s eyes moved from her to the window.
Daniel stepped between them. “Don’t speak to her.”
“I never said that,” Vivian replied.
Lily pressed against my side. I bent until we were face to face.
“You don’t have to tell anyone else right now,” I said. “I heard you. I believe you.”
The front doorbell rang.
Grace had asked the police to come after Daniel sent her a photograph of the deed. An officer named Ramirez entered with her partner and asked us to explain what had happened.
I showed her the paper. Daniel played the camera recording. Vivian interrupted twice, calling the garage a quiet place where Lily could finish dinner.
Officer Ramirez watched the entire clip without looking away.
Then she asked Vivian, “Where is Mr. Bennett?”
“At his house,” Vivian said.
“I’m going there,” I told Daniel.
He nodded. “I’ll take Lily to Nora’s. Call me as soon as you see him.”
Our neighbor Nora had known Lily since she was a baby. Lily liked helping her water the porch flowers, and her house was only two doors away. Daniel would stay with her while I checked on Dad.
I hesitated at the door. Lily ran to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Bring Grandpa back,” she said.
“I will.”
I meant it. I just did not know what I would find.
Vivian insisted on riding with the officers to Dad’s house. Ramirez let her ride separately from me. I followed in my car, gripping the steering wheel while every light seemed to take too long.
Dad’s porch lamp was off.
He always left it on for Lily.
I knocked. No answer came.
The officers tried the door. It was unlocked.
Dad was in the living room, sitting in his recliner with a blanket over his knees. He looked up when I entered and tried to smile.
“Claire. Is Lily with you?”
“She’s safe with Daniel.”
His shoulders lowered a little.
On the table beside him sat a glass of water he could not reach without standing. His cane lay across the room.
I brought him the water. He drank with both hands around the glass.
Officer Ramirez asked him about the deed.
“I didn’t sign it,” Dad said.
Vivian came through the doorway behind her. “Arthur, think carefully. We discussed it this morning.”
Dad’s expression changed. I had seen him become confused since his fall, but this was fear.
“You brought a paper,” he said. “You said it would let you pay the bills.”
“You agreed,” Vivian answered.
“I said I wanted Claire to read it first.”
Vivian opened her mouth, but Ramirez stopped her.
“I need to hear him without help.”
Dad looked down at his hands.
“I told her no.”
Hearing him say it should have settled something in me. Instead, I saw how thin his wrists had become and wondered how many times he had said no when I was not there.
The second officer walked through the house with Dad’s permission. He returned carrying a folder he had found open on the dining table.
Inside were several copies of the deed. One had no signature. Another had a signature that looked almost right. The date on it was from two days earlier.
Vivian said they were drafts.
Ramirez took the folder to examine it. She told us that the officers would document what they found and speak with the attorney who had prepared the final deed. She made no promises about what would happen next.
Dad watched Vivian as though he expected her to tell him how to answer.
I moved my chair closer to his.
“Do you want to stay here tonight?” I asked.
“No.”
It came out quickly.
Vivian flinched. “Arthur, this is your home.”
“I know,” he said. “I want to leave it.”
He had never asked me for that before.
I packed his medication, a change of clothes, and the old photograph of my mother he kept by his bed. In his closet, I found the blue cardigan Lily had given him for his birthday. Its pockets were stuffed with folded paper napkins.
Dad followed my gaze.
“She took my phone,” he said quietly. “I was going to ask the mail carrier to call you.”
I closed my eyes for a moment.
I had called Dad that morning. Vivian answered and said he was sleeping. I had accepted it because he had been tired lately.
On the drive home, Dad said little. Once, he asked if Lily had eaten. I told him Daniel was making her toast and eggs at Nora’s.
“That’s her favorite,” he said.
At my front door, Daniel came out to help him up the steps. Lily stood behind him in a blanket.
She ran to Dad.
He held her with the arm that still worked well and started to cry.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Lily shook her head. “Mommy found me.”
That night, after Lily fell asleep, Dad sat at our kitchen table with Daniel and me.
“I thought giving Vivian an allowance would make things easier,” he said. “When I tried to stop it, she said I owed her for taking care of me.”
“You don’t owe anyone your house,” I said.
Dad looked at the dark window.
“There’s something else. She took me to a bank on Tuesday. She said I needed to put her name on an account.”
Daniel reached for a pen.
“Did you?”
May you like
Dad’s eyes filled.
“I can’t remember what I signed.”
