Chapter 3 - THE PAPERS DAD NEVER EXPECTED ANYONE TO FIND
Dad laughed.
It wasn’t convincing.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Mr. Bennett walked toward us without hurrying.
He had handled my grandparents’ estate, my parents’ property documents, and eventually Mom’s final wishes.
He knew exactly where every financial body was buried.
Dad knew that too.
“You are not my attorney,” Dad snapped.
“No.”
Mr. Bennett stopped beside me.
“I was Evelyn’s.”
Lisa stared at my father.
“Richard?”
He ignored her.
Mr. Bennett opened his briefcase.
Inside were copies of six documents.
A home equity application.
Two investment withdrawals.
A beneficiary change.
A line of credit.
And a deed transferring Mom’s house into Dad’s name.
Every document carried Evelyn Carter’s signature.
None had been signed by Mom.
A forensic handwriting examiner had already reviewed them.
Dad’s expression turned ugly.
“Evelyn told me to handle finances.”
“Handling finances does not authorize forgery.”
“I had power of attorney.”
“Limited medical power of attorney,” Mr. Bennett corrected. “Not financial authority.”
The ballroom had become so quiet I could hear the air-conditioning.
Lisa whispered:
“You told me everything was legal.”
Dad finally looked at her.
“Stop talking.”
That changed her expression.
Until that moment, Lisa had been embarrassed.
Now she looked afraid.
Mr. Bennett handed me another folder.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Something your mother asked me to release only if Richard remarried Lisa within one year of her death.”
Dad stared at him.
“What?”
I opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Dad and Lisa leaving a hotel.
Dad kissing Lisa in a parking garage.
Lisa entering our house late at night while Mom had been hospitalized.
Dates were printed beneath every image.
The earliest photograph had been taken fourteen months before Mom died.
My stomach twisted.
I had heard them say one year.
The affair had started even earlier.
Lisa sank into a chair.
“Who took these?”
Mr. Bennett answered.
“A private investigator hired by Evelyn.”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
Mom had been dying.
And while I thought she was too weak to understand what was happening around her, she had quietly been protecting herself.
And me.
My father pointed at Mr. Bennett.
“You’re trying to make this look criminal.”
Mr. Bennett’s expression didn’t change.
“I don’t need to make it look like anything.”
Then he removed one final page.
“This is the document that matters.”
Dad recognized it instantly.
His hands started shaking.
“What is that?”
Lisa looked between them.
Mr. Bennett handed it to me.
It was a bank statement from an account I had never seen before.
Three months before Mom died, $286,000 had been transferred from one of her investment accounts.
The recipient was a company called L&R Property Group.
I stared at the initials.
Lisa and Richard.
Then Mr. Bennett said quietly:
“Your mother discovered they weren’t only planning a marriage.”
May you like
He looked at Dad.
“They were buying a house together while she was still alive.”
