Not a request for forgiveness.
Not a question about how he might repair the damage he had caused.
Only a plea for assistance.
The familiar refrain of an adult who had spent his life expecting someone else to solve his problems.
I considered him for a long moment.
“Yes,” I finally said.
Relief spread across his face.
Then I continued.
“I’ll help you tell the truth.”
His relief disappeared instantly.
“What?”
“I’ll arrange for you to speak with Howard.
I’ll help you assemble evidence of the fraud.
I’ll help you give up what doesn’t belong to you and confront the people you’ve borrowed from.
I’ll pay for proper legal representation, but I will not purchase your escape from responsibility.
I’ll pay to keep you safe, not to preserve your expensive habits.
You won’t receive cash from me.
I won’t conceal property.
And I will not tell lies to protect you.”
“Mom, those people are going to destroy me.”
“Your life as you’ve known it is already destroyed.
What you must decide now is whether you’re willing to rebuild yourself or let the wreckage bury you.”
Something changed in his eyes.
The old resentment returned, not completely, but enough for me to recognize it.
“So that’s your answer?
You sell my home and stand behind a gate giving me lectures?”
“I sold property that belonged to me after you physically attacked me.”
His jaw muscles tightened.
“There you are,” I murmured.
“What are you talking about?”
“That’s the man who stood in front of me last night.”
Trevor lowered his gaze.
His breathing grew heavier.
“I’m doing my best.”
“No.
You’re negotiating.”
He covered his face with both hands and dragged them downward.
“What exactly do you want me to do?”
“Tell the truth.”
“I already have!”
“Every bit of it.”
He became completely motionless.
I watched his expression closely.
He blinked once, unnaturally slowly.
There was still something he hadn’t revealed.
“Trevor,” I said.
Before he could answer, his telephone rang.
He glanced at the display.
All the color drained from his face.
I knew who was calling even before he showed me the screen.
Kristen.
With trembling fingers, he answered and activated the speaker.
Her voice emerged from the device, bright and icy.
“Are you standing there with her?”
Trevor looked toward me.
Neither of us responded.
Kristen laughed quietly.
“Of course you are.
Poor little Trevor.
Five years of pretending to be a wealthy businessman, and now you’ve run straight back to Mommy.”
“What do you want, Kristen?” he demanded.
“What belongs to me.”
“You robbed me.”
“I made sure I was protected.”
“You went behind my back to Kessler.”
“I spoke to everybody.”
A cold sensation passed through me.
Everybody.
Then Kristen addressed me directly.
“Gloria, since I’m certain you can hear every word, I suggest you look at your email.”
My telephone vibrated inside my coat pocket.
A new message had arrived from an unfamiliar email address.
The subject read:
Raymond Sutter Trust Documents.
My hand froze before I could fully reach into my pocket.
Kristen’s voice became almost affectionate.
“You really ought to have explained to Trevor what his father left behind for him.”
Everything around me seemed to contract.
The gate.
My son’s pale face.
The rosemary fragrance drifting through the cold air.
My dead husband’s name appearing in an email sent by a stranger.
“Mom?”
Trevor whispered, his voice full of confusion and terror.
“What’s she talking about?”
I opened the message.
There was a single attachment.
A scanned legal document.
At the top appeared a title I hadn’t laid eyes on for seventeen years.
The Raymond Sutter Irrevocable Family Trust.
Below it was a page containing signatures.
Mine.
Raymond’s.
And a third signature I had never seen before.
Trustee: Kristen Lynn Sutter.
A chill deeper than the February weather passed through me.
Seventeen years earlier, Kristen hadn’t been part of our family.
She hadn’t even met Trevor.
Yet somehow, her name had appeared on a legal trust established by my late husband.
I stared at the impossible signature.
Through Trevor’s telephone, Kristen began laughing.
Then she spoke again.
“Now, Gloria, let’s discuss who actually owns everything.”
