Chapter 5: Teresa Fights Back
The call came at seven forty-five in the morning.
I was in Laurel's driveway, loading Frederick's car seat into the back of my truck, when my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I almost let it go to voicemail.
"Connor." Teresa's voice was flat and controlled.
The hysteria from the night before was gone.
"I need you to listen to me very carefully."
"You're calling from the holding facility."
"They're allowing me one call to a family member before my arraignment.
I chose you." A brief silence.
"I want you to drop the complaint."
I closed the truck door.
"That's not going to happen."
"Connor.
I am your mother.
Everything I did, I did because Amy is not the person you think she is.
She has been manipulating you since before Frederick was born.
I have proof."
"What proof?"
"Bank records.
Text messages.
A conversation she had with her sister about your life insurance policy." Her voice sharpened.
"Did you know she called Laurel the week after you took out that policy and asked what would happen to the payout if you died before Frederick turned two?"
My hand tightened on the phone.
"That's a lie."
"Is it?
Ask Laurel.
Ask her what Amy said on that call." A pause, perfectly timed.
"I was trying to protect you.
I have been trying to protect you for fourteen months.
The documents, the account — I was building a safety net for you.
For Frederick.
In case Amy took everything and left."
I stood in the driveway for a long moment.
Then I walked back inside and found Laurel in the kitchen.
"Teresa just told me Amy called you after I took out my life insurance policy," I said.
"She said Amy asked what would happen to the payout if I died before Frederick turned two."
Laurel set her coffee mug down.
She looked at me steadily.
"Amy called me that week," she said.
"She was terrified.
She had just found out Teresa had been asking questions about your policy at the insurance office.
She wanted to know if Teresa could somehow make a claim." Laurel's voice was even.
"She was scared for you, Connor.
Not for the money."
I walked back outside and put the phone back to my ear.
"I asked Laurel," I said.
Silence.
"She told me what Amy actually said."
More silence.
Then Teresa's voice came back, and the control in it had developed a crack.
"You have no idea what that woman is capable of."
"I know exactly what you're capable of," I said.
"I watched you put my wife in a kitchen with a sick baby and a pile of dishes while you wore a new dress and told twenty people you run my house.
I watched officers pull a forged deed out of a binder my cousin was trying to carry over my back fence." My voice stayed level.
"Don't call this number again."
I ended the call.
Detective Hale called forty minutes later.
"Your mother made contact with Gerald Fitch's former paralegal this morning from the holding facility," he said.
"We were monitoring.
She asked him to access a secondary filing she had prepared and submit it to the county recorder's office before the arraignment."
"What kind of filing?"
"A lien.
Against your property.
Dated eight months ago, backdated to look like a legitimate debt instrument." He paused.
"We intercepted it.
The paralegal is now cooperating.
But Mr.
Bradley — this means she had a contingency.
If the deed transfer failed, the lien was the fallback."
Two plans.
Running simultaneously.
For over a year.
"Is she going to get bail?" I asked.
"That's up to the judge.
But given the contact with the paralegal this morning, we're requesting remand." Another pause.
"I'd suggest you speak to a property attorney today.
Before the arraignment."
I went back inside.
Amy was at the kitchen table with Frederick on her lap, feeding him small pieces of banana.
She looked up when she saw my face.
"What happened?"
"She called me," I said.
"And then she tried to file a lien on the house."
Frederick reached up and grabbed Amy's finger.
She looked down at him for a moment, then back at me.
"She's not going to stop," Amy said quietly.
It wasn't a question.
May you like
"No," I said.
"Not on her own."
