Chapter 5: Nine O’Clock
Dad stared at the message as if the phone had betrayed him.
“I didn’t send that.”
“It came from your number,” I said.
He searched his pockets.
“My phone is gone.”
Caleb lifted Vanessa’s discarded tablet from the side table.
“Your messages are connected to this.
She could have sent it from either device.”
Angela gathered the account statements.
“We’re going to the bank when it opens.”
“The transfer may already be locked in,” Dad said.
“Then call the emergency number,” I replied.
He hesitated.
I slapped the statement against his chest.
“Choose me once.”
Dad dialed.
At 8:35 the next morning, we stood inside the bank manager’s office.
Vanessa was already seated beside a man in a gray suit.
“Maya,” she said calmly.
“You should be preparing for college.”
The man rose.
“I’m Mr.
Sloan, Mrs.
Brooks’s attorney.”
“She isn’t Mrs.
Brooks,” Angela said.
“I kept my name after the divorce.”
Vanessa leaned back.
“Always clinging to technicalities.”
Ms.
Patel, the bank manager, placed several forms on her desk.
“The transfer was authorized with Maya’s electronic signature and a notarized financial power of attorney.”
“I never gave her power of attorney,” I said.
Vanessa tapped the final page.
“That is your signature.”
“It’s a copy from my learner’s permit application.”
Mr.
Sloan shook his head.
“That is speculation.”
Caleb set his phone beside the documents.
“I have a recording of her admitting she used the account for family expenses.”
“An illegally obtained recording,” Mr.
Sloan replied.
“It was recorded in my home during a conversation I participated in,” Dad said.
“Our state allows that.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“Be careful, Robert.
Your signatures are on twelve withdrawals.”
Ms.
Patel folded her hands.
“The transfer is paused for forty-eight hours while our security department investigates.”
“Paused?” I asked.
“Not canceled?”
“The documents appear valid on their face.”
Vanessa stood.
“Then we’re finished here.”
“No,” Angela said.
“We need the notary’s registration record.”
Mr.
Sloan closed his folder.
“You’ll obtain nothing without a court order.”
Vanessa paused beside me.
“If you withdraw your complaint, I will release ten thousand dollars for college.”
“You took more than eighty thousand.”
“I housed you for twelve years.
Ten thousand is generous.”
Caleb stared at her.
“You’re offering Maya a piece of her own money.”
“I’m offering her a future,” Vanessa said.
“Something Angela never provided.”
My knees weakened beneath the table.
Angela reached for me, but Vanessa’s next words stopped her.
“Ask your mother about the fifty-thousand-dollar agreement she signed.”
I turned.
“What agreement?”
Angela’s fingers slipped from my shoulder.
“Maya, it wasn’t what she’s making it sound like.”
Vanessa opened her attorney’s folder and removed a photocopy.
“Angela accepted fifty thousand dollars in exchange for surrendering further custody claims.”
My name appeared in the first paragraph.
Angela’s signature appeared on the last page.
“You were paid to stay away?” I asked.
“No.”
“The signature is yours,” Vanessa said.
Angela looked directly at me.
“Yes, I signed something.
But not that.”
Vanessa slid the document across the table.
“Convenient.”
I backed toward the office door.
“Both of you kept documents from me.
Both of you decided what I could know.”
“Maya, please listen,” Angela said.
“I spent twelve years believing you didn’t want me.”
“I wanted you every day.”
“Then why is your name on this?”
Angela’s eyes filled.
“Because your father told me the money would be placed in your education account.
The page surrendering custody was not attached when I signed.”
Vanessa picked up her purse.
“Prove it.”
Ms.
Patel’s desk phone rang.
She listened, then covered the receiver.
“Security found something.
The power of attorney was notarized three months ago at the Northfield branch.”
“I was three hundred miles away on that date,” I said.
Ms.
Patel looked toward Vanessa.
“The branch camera files were scheduled for deletion this morning.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“Then I suppose there is no video.”
Ms.
Patel shook her head.
May you like
“The deletion failed.
Security is sending the footage now.”
