Chapter 5: What Linda Knew
My flight to Maui left four hours after Kevin's.
I had booked it the moment the concierge confirmed the transfer — same destination, different airline, a direct seat in business class that I had originally given up for the family booking.
The oceanfront suite was already in my name.
The excursions were already in my name.
I spent those four hours thinking about Linda's text.
By the time I boarded, I had decided to respond.
*Thank you, Linda.
I appreciate you saying so.
What did Jessica tell you about the trip?*
She replied before we reached cruising altitude.
I read it when the flight attendant brought my coffee.
*She said you'd offered the trip as a gift to Kevin and the family, and that you'd decided last minute not to come because of your health.
She said you were relieved to have the break.*
I set the coffee down.
*She said you were the one who suggested I take your place so the children would still have a grandmother figure on the trip.*
I read that sentence three times.
Jessica had told her own mother that I had volunteered to stay home.
That I had offered Linda my seat.
That it had been my idea.
She had constructed an entire version of events in which she had done nothing wrong.
I typed back carefully.
*Linda, I need you to know that none of that is true.
I did not offer you my place.
I did not decide not to come.
Jessica took my boarding pass at the gate and told me to go home.
Kevin said nothing.*
Three minutes passed.
Then: *Oh, Ruth.*
Then: *I had no idea.
I swear to you I had no idea.*
Then: *She told me this two weeks ago.
She said you'd already agreed.*
Two weeks ago.
Jessica had planned this two weeks in advance.
She had recruited her own mother with a false story, given Linda time to pack, arrange childcare for whatever she needed to arrange, attach a luggage tag to a suitcase — all while I was at home packing Emma's tiara and confirming excursion times.
My hands were very still on the tray table.
*Does Kevin know you're texting me?* I wrote.
*No.
He's asleep.
The children are watching a movie.*
*Linda, I need to ask you something directly.
In the two weeks since Jessica told you this plan, did Kevin ever mention the trip to you?
Did he seem to know you were coming?*
The pause this time was longer.
*He seemed surprised at the gate,* she wrote finally.
*I thought it was because he was emotional about the trip.
But now I'm wondering.*
*So am I,* I wrote back.
I looked out the window at the clouds below.
There were two possibilities.
Either Kevin had known about Jessica's plan for two weeks and said nothing to me.
Or Jessica had arranged it without telling him, sprung it at the gate, and Kevin had been too weak — or too afraid of her — to stop it.
I didn't know which was worse.
My phone buzzed again.
Linda.
*Ruth.
There's something else.
On the way to the gate this morning, I heard Jessica on the phone.
I didn't think anything of it at the time.
But she said — and I'm trying to remember exactly — she said "it's already done, the account is set up, she won't find out until it's too late."*
I went very still.
*I thought she was talking about a surprise for the kids,* Linda wrote.
*A luau or something.
But after everything you've just told me—*
*Which account?* I wrote.
*I don't know.
I only heard that part.*
I closed my eyes.
The mortgage.
The trust.
The payments I made every month without a second thought because Kevin was my son and I had never imagined needing to protect myself from him.
May you like
What account had Jessica set up?
And what was it too late for?
