Chapter 4 - My Mother's Secret
Patricia Bennett denied Brad's accusation for eleven minutes.
Then Agent Reeves placed printed messages on the kitchen table.
Patricia stopped talking.
Claire recognized her mother's phone number.
The messages concerned signatures, notarizations and Claire's prolonged absences.
One message read:
She won't know. She hasn't been home in years.
Claire felt physically cold.
“Mom?”
Patricia began crying.
Claire didn't.
Not yet.
Patricia explained that the first transfer had seemed harmless. Grandma's property required taxes and maintenance. Claire was away. Tiffany lived nearby.
Patricia convinced herself she was simply reorganizing assets.
Then money entered the equation.
A developer made an offer.
Brad introduced contacts.
Richard agreed.
Grandma refused.
After Eleanor died, they proceeded anyway.
“You forged my name.”
Patricia shook her head.
“I never physically signed it.”
Claire stared at her.
“You gave someone permission to.”
Silence.
“That is not better.”
Richard finally spoke.
“We thought you'd agree eventually.”
“You thought wrong.”
“We're your parents.”
“And that gave you ownership of my signature?”
Nobody answered.
Claire stood.
Her mother reached for her.
Claire stepped back.
That tiny movement seemed to hurt Patricia more than shouting would have.
Then Agent Reeves received a call.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“The notary is cooperating.”
Richard sat down.
Reeves continued.
“She says several documents arrived already signed.”
“From whom?” Claire asked.
Reeves looked toward Patricia.
“Your mother.”
Tiffany covered her mouth.
But the revelation didn't end there.
The notary claimed she had been paid through a company.
Front Range Development Holdings.
Brad's company.
Brad insisted Richard organized everything.
Richard accused Brad of exploiting the family.
Within minutes, the alliance that had existed when Claire walked through the door collapsed.
Everyone blamed everyone.
Claire watched silently.
All those years they had treated her like the family problem.
Now she understood something.
She had never been the problem.
She had simply been the easiest person to exclude.
Before leaving, Reeves pulled Claire aside.
“There is another issue.”
“What?”
“Your grandmother may have created a second estate instruction.”
Claire frowned.
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
“How do you know it exists?”
“A reference in her attorney's archived correspondence.”
Claire thought of Grandma's meticulous habits.
“What does it say?”
“We only know the title.”
Reeves showed her.
Joint Instructions for Claire and Tiffany Bennett.
Claire stared at her sister through the kitchen doorway.
Grandma had left something for both of them.
Together.
But nobody knew where it was.
Tiffany suddenly stood.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned.
“Grandma gave me an envelope.”
Claire's heart stopped.
“When?”
“Before she died.”
“And where is it?”
Tiffany looked toward Patricia.
“Mom told me it was old insurance paperwork.”
Patricia went pale.
Tiffany ran upstairs.
Minutes later she returned carrying a faded white envelope.
Across the front, written in Eleanor Bennett's unmistakable handwriting, were six words:
May you like
FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTERS. OPEN THIS TOGETHER.
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