Chapter 5: The Man Behind the Letter
Martin arranged a family meeting at my house that evening.
Daniel arrived with a silver-haired man carrying a medical bag.
“This is Dr.
Bell,” Daniel said.
“He assessed you last month.”
“I have never seen him before.”
Dr.
Bell avoided my eyes.
“Patients sometimes forget brief consultations.”
Martin placed the letter on the table.
“Where did this consultation occur?”
“At Mrs.
Walsh’s home.”
“What room were you in?” I asked.
“The sitting room.”
“My home doesn’t have a sitting room.”
Daniel pulled out a chair.
“This is becoming ridiculous.”
“No,” I said.
“Ridiculous was serving you dinner while you planned to take my home.”
“You’re twisting everything.”
Martin pointed at the letter.
“Dr.
Bell’s clinic closed eighteen months ago.
His license is under review.”
Dr.
Bell reached for the page.
Martin covered it with his hand.
“That is evidence.”
“It’s my letter.”
“It concerns my client.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Enough.
Eleanor, we can settle this privately.”
“What are you offering?”
“You keep your house.
We keep the forty thousand, and nobody files a complaint.”
“The transfer failed,” I said.
“You don’t have the money.”
His smile did not move.
“Not from that account.”
Claire entered through the hallway.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel’s shoulders tightened.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I checked our mortgage account,” she said.
“There hasn’t been a payment in five months.”
“I moved funds to protect them.”
“You emptied it.”
“I invested it.”
“In what?”
Daniel looked at me instead.
“Ask your daughter how many documents she signed.”
Claire’s lips parted.
He dropped a stack of papers onto the table.
“She signed the loan application.
She signed the company guarantee.
She signed your financial authorization.”
“You told me Mom approved it,” Claire said.
“And you believed me because you wanted the money.”
Claire pulled out the top page.
“This is not my signature.”
“It looks close enough.”
Her chair scraped across the floor.
“You forged mine too.”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
Dr.
Bell moved toward the door, but Martin blocked him.
“You’ll want independent advice before leaving with Mr.
Bennett.”
“You can’t keep me here,” the doctor said.
“No,” Martin replied.
“But I can tell you that the bank retained your letter.”
Daniel pointed at Claire.
“If she turns against me, I’ll produce every message she sent about her mother.”
“Produce them,” I said.
“You won’t enjoy reading them.”
“Neither will Claire enjoy learning what you did with her house.”
Daniel leaned over the table.
“Without me, she has nothing.”
“She has a mother,” I said.
“A mother who just locked her out of every account.”
“Because she betrayed me.”
Claire flinched.
Daniel spread his hands.
“There it is.
Eleanor doesn’t forgive.
Come home, Claire, and I can still fix this.”
Claire looked at me.
“Will you help me if I tell the truth?”
“I will stand beside you while you tell it.
I will not lie for you.”
“That isn’t love,” Daniel said.
“No,” I replied.
“It’s the first honest thing anyone has offered her.”
The doorbell rang.
A process server handed Martin a sealed packet and left.
Martin read the first page twice.
“What is it?” I asked.
Daniel buttoned his coat.
“I filed an emergency petition this morning.”
Martin’s jaw tightened.
“A judge has temporarily frozen Eleanor’s accounts until the competency hearing.”
Daniel opened the door.
May you like
“Forty-eight hours,” he said.
“Then the court decides which one of us is telling the truth.”
