Chapter 8 - MY MOTHER’S VERSION OF LOVE
I did not sleep that night.
At three in the morning, I stood in the same kitchen where I had found Anna.
The sink was empty.
The floor was clean.
The room looked ordinary.
That bothered me.
Places don’t remember what happened inside them.
People do.
Anna found me there.
She wore one of my sweatshirts and held Ethan against her shoulder.
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Trying to solve everything alone.”
I took Ethan from her.
He settled against my chest.
“I don’t know who my mother is.”
Anna leaned against the counter.
“Maybe you do.”
I looked at her.
“Maybe the problem is that you know exactly who she is now, and you’re grieving who you thought she was.”
That sentence stayed with me.
The next morning, my mother’s attorney requested a meeting.
I refused.
Then he said Evelyn had information regarding my father’s finances she would only share directly.
Samuel thought it was a trap.
Rebecca wanted to go.
Anna said the decision was mine.
I agreed under conditions.
Public law office.
Attorneys present.
No Anna.
No Ethan.
When I entered the conference room, my mother was already seated.
She looked smaller.
No makeup.
Gray roots visible.
For one dangerous moment, I remembered childhood.
Pancakes on Saturdays.
Her holding my hand on my first day of school.
Christmas mornings.
Then I remembered Anna’s hair in her fist.
I sat.
My mother stared at me.
“You look tired.”
“Say what you wanted to say.”
“Nathan—”
“No.”
Her mouth tightened.
“You don’t get to start with concern.”
She looked toward her lawyer.
He remained silent.
My mother folded her hands.
“Your father was not the man you think he was.”
“Neither are you.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Daniel had affairs.”
I waited.
Nothing.
“You expected me to be shocked?”
“He humiliated me.”
“So you stole from his company?”
“I protected myself.”
“By stealing?”
“By making sure I wouldn’t be left with nothing.”
I almost admired how quickly she transformed theft into self-defense.
“What about Thomas Reed?”
Her face remained perfectly still.
That told me enough.
“You know the name.”
“Of course.”
“He said you knew why he disappeared.”
“Thomas was unstable.”
“Where is he?”
“How would I know?”
“What about Dr. Klein?”
For the first time, something flickered.
Small.
Almost invisible.
“Your father had heart problems.”
“I know.”
“Dr. Klein treated him.”
“Why were shell companies paying his cardiologist?”
My mother stared at me.
Then smiled.
Not warmly.
The smile she used when she believed someone had made a mistake.
“So Samuel found you.”
I felt cold.
“You knew he was alive.”
“Of course.”
“Why did you tell him we wanted nothing to do with Dad’s files?”
“Because Samuel poisoned your father against me.”
Her voice rose.
“He filled Daniel’s head with suspicion.”
“You mean numbers.”
“What?”
“Samuel was an accountant.”
I leaned forward.
“Numbers aren’t poisoning someone against you.”
Her lawyer quietly said,
“Evelyn.”
She ignored him.
“You think Anna loves you more than I do?”
There it was.
The center of everything.
Not money.
Not even control.
Ownership.
“You still think this is a competition.”
“She arrived three years ago and suddenly I became the enemy.”
“You became the enemy when you put your hands on her.”
“She took you from me.”
“No.”
I stood.
“I grew up.”
My mother stared at me.
“She will leave you.”
“Maybe.”
The answer surprised her.
“Maybe we’ll be married sixty years. Maybe we won’t.”
I put my hands on the table.
“But Anna is my wife, not my possession.”
I looked directly into my mother’s eyes.
“You never learned the difference.”
I turned to leave.
“Nathan.”
I stopped.
Her voice was calm again.
“You should ask Samuel what happened the night your father died.”
I turned.
“What?”
She smiled.
“He was there.”
I went still.
“No, he wasn’t.”
“That’s what he told you?”
My mother leaned back.
“Samuel Price was the last person besides me to see your father alive.”
My attorney looked at me.
I immediately called Samuel outside.
He didn’t answer.
I called Rebecca.
Nothing.
Again.
No answer.
I drove to Samuel’s house.
His front door was open.
I entered carefully.
“Samuel?”
No response.
His kitchen chair was overturned.
Papers covered the floor.
Then I saw blood.
Not much.
A few drops near the hallway.
I called 911.
And while I waited, I noticed something missing.
The box containing my father’s original ledger.
Someone had taken it.
Then I heard a phone vibrating beneath the couch.
Samuel’s phone.
On the screen was an unsent message addressed to me.
May you like
Only six words had been typed.
Nathan, your mother knows about Anna.
