Chapter 2 - The PapersThe police separated us before I could ask Lauren another question.
I had heard Nora Ellis speak through emergencies before.
She had called me when a pipe burst over the upstairs library. She had called when my mother fell beside her bed. Once, she calmly informed me that smoke was pouring from the kitchen wall while she was already guiding everyone outside.
Nora did not panic.
That afternoon, she was panicking.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Your wife locked the sunroom.”
My hand tightened around the steering wheel.
“What?”
“Lauren is inside with your mother. She has papers. Your mother is crying. I tried to get in, and Lauren shoved me out.”
Behind Nora, something struck glass.
Then I heard my mother make a sound.
Not a word.
My mother, Evelyn Bennett, had suffered a stroke eighteen months earlier. She could speak, but only slowly, and fear often stole what little language she had recovered.
But I knew that sound.
It was the sound she made when she was terrified.
“Nora.”
“I’m here.”
“What is Lauren doing?”
There was a pause.
Then Nora whispered, “She hit her.”
I nearly drove onto the shoulder.
“Call 911.”
“I already did.”
“I’m five minutes away.”
“Michael—”
“What?”
“She’s trying to make your mother sign something.”
The line went silent for half a second.
Then Nora shouted, “Mrs. Bennett, stop!”
I heard my wife scream something I couldn’t understand.
The call disconnected.
I drove home faster than I ever had in my life.
For eleven years, Lauren and I had lived in the white colonial house outside Richmond that my father had bought before he died. I had spent years believing it was the safest place in the world.
That afternoon, it looked like a crime scene before I even stepped inside.
Nora stood in the foyer.
Her white apron was crooked. One sleeve had been torn at the shoulder.
She pointed toward the sunroom.
“She locked it from the inside.”
I ran.
The sunroom door was solid wood with a large glass panel. Through it, I could see only part of the room.
My mother was on the floor beside the sofa.
Lauren stood over her.
My mother had one hand pressed to her cheek.
Even through the glass, I could see the red mark across her pale skin.
Lauren had papers spread across the coffee table.
A pen was clenched in my mother’s trembling hand.
Lauren grabbed her wrist.
“Sign it!”
I hit the door with my shoulder.
Lauren spun around.
Her face changed when she saw me.
“Michael?”
I hit the door again.
The frame cracked.
“Open the door!”
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
My mother shook her head violently.
Lauren reached for the papers.
That was when something inside me broke.
I stepped backward and drove my shoulder into the door with everything I had.
Wood splintered.
The lock tore loose.
The door crashed inward.
Lauren stumbled back.
I crossed the room and dropped beside my mother.
“Mom.”
Her fingers closed around my sleeve.
“Mi… Michael.”
“I’m here.”
She was crying.
I looked at her cheek.
A fresh red mark stretched from her jaw toward her ear.
I slowly turned toward my wife.
Lauren still held the papers.
“What did you do?”
She shook her head. “She became hysterical.”
“My mother has a handprint on her face.”
“She slapped herself trying to pull away.”
Nora appeared behind me.
“No, she didn’t.”
Lauren stared at her.
Nora’s voice shook, but she didn’t look away.
“I saw you hit her.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then I noticed the top page in Lauren’s hand.
At first, I saw only legal language.
Then one line caught my eye.
TRANSFER OF FINANCIAL AUTHORITY.
Below it was my mother’s full legal name.
And beneath that was a signature line.
“What are those papers?” I asked.
Lauren folded them against her chest.
“Nothing.”
I stood.
“Give them to me.”
“Michael, we need to talk privately.”
“My mother is bleeding inside her mouth and you’re holding documents with her name on them.”
She backed toward the windows.
“I was trying to protect this family.”
“From what?”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears.
And for one second, I almost recognized the woman I had married.
Then she said something that changed everything.
“From what your mother was about to do to us.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Lauren closed her eyes.
I took the papers from her hand.
The first page concerned financial authority.
The second concerned a trust.
The third concerned my father’s estate.
And on the fourth page was a number.
$12,800,000.
I stared at it.
Then at Lauren.
“What is this?”
Her face went white.
My mother began trying desperately to speak behind me.
“Mi… chael…”
I knelt beside her again.
“What, Mom?”
Her shaking finger pointed toward Lauren.
Then toward the desk across the room.
“Phone.”
I followed her gaze.
A phone was partially hidden beneath a cushion.
Not my mother’s phone.
Lauren’s.
The screen was still lit.
A message notification filled it.
DANIEL: Did she sign yet? We’re out of time.
I looked at my wife.
“Who is Daniel?”
May you like
Lauren didn’t answer.
And after eleven years of marriage, I realized I might not know my wife at all.
