“Since you made the offer.”
Before closing.
Before the deed.
Before the house was mine.
Brandon had already been claiming the future.
Melissa reached into her purse.
“There’s something else.”
She took out her phone.
“I didn’t understand it before.”
She opened a text thread and turned the screen toward me.
It was a conversation between her and Brandon from three weeks earlier.
Melissa had asked:
Are you sure your mom is okay with us using the house whenever?
Brandon had replied:
She will be. Once everything is set up, she won’t want to deal with details.
Melissa:
What if she changes her mind?
Brandon:
She won’t. And if she gets difficult, I’ll handle it.
My eyes stopped there.
If she gets difficult.
I handed the phone back.
Melissa scrolled farther.
“There’s one more.”
She showed me another message.
Once the paperwork is in place, she can’t keep changing things every time she gets emotional.
I stared at the screen.
“What paperwork?”
Melissa shook her head.
“I thought he meant the trust.”
My pulse began pounding.
“When did he send that?”
“Four days ago.”
Before the false authorization had been submitted.
I stood.
Melissa stood too.
“Eleanor?”
I was already reaching for my phone.
I called Nora.
She answered on the second ring.
“Nora, I need you to check something.”
“What?”
“Brandon told Melissa that once ‘the paperwork’ was in place, I wouldn’t be able to keep changing things.”
Nora went silent.
Then she asked, “When?”
“Four days ago.”
“Can Melissa preserve that message?”
“Yes.”
Melissa nodded.
Nora’s voice sharpened.
“I want a copy immediately.”
“What do you think he meant?”
“I don’t know.”
“But?”
“But the authorization we found would not prevent you from changing anything.
It could be revoked at any time.”
I looked at Melissa.
“So he may have meant something else.”
“That is what concerns me.”
My skin prickled.
“What else could he have been trying to put in place?”
“I’m going to find out.”
We ended the call.
Melissa stood near the doorway, pale.
“I really am sorry.”
I believed her more now.
But forgiveness was not the same as access.
“I think you should go.”
She nodded.
At the door, she stopped.
“Eleanor?”
“Yes?”
“Brandon has a folder.”
My heart seemed to pause.
“What kind of folder?”
“Gray.
He keeps it in his desk at home.
He started locking the desk about a month ago.”
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because two weeks ago I asked him what it was.”
She swallowed.
“He said it was paperwork for your estate.”
The ocean roared behind the house.
I stared at my daughter-in-law.
“My estate?”
Melissa nodded.
“And then he told me not to worry because by the time you understood why he’d done it, everything would already be easier for everyone.”
