Chapter 4 - Eighty-Seven Thousand Dollars
The bank records arrived the next morning.
I didn’t sleep.
Neither did Ryan.
Marlene had left my house only after I told her I would call the police if she refused.
Before leaving, she looked at Lily and said:
“You’ll regret humiliating me.”
Ryan answered before I could.
“No, Mom. I think you’re finally going to regret something.”
The bank records showed eleven transfers over fourteen months.
Small enough at first to escape attention.
$2,500.
$4,000.
$6,200.
Then larger.
The money had moved from an investment account Nora rarely checked into a consulting company.
Walker Family Advisory LLC.
I had never heard of it.
Ryan searched the state registration database.
The owner?
Marlene Walker.
I sat frozen.
My mother had been stealing from my wife.
The total was $87,430.
But one question tortured me.
How had she accessed the account?
Then I remembered.
Two years earlier, Nora had broken her wrist.
Marlene had volunteered to “help with paperwork” while staying with us.
Nora trusted her.
So did I.
Ryan leaned back.
“She kept access.”
Apparently.
But Nora had finally noticed.
And three nights after she confronted the bank, she collapsed.
I drove to the hospital.
Nora remained weak but had regained consciousness that morning.
When I entered her room, her eyes filled immediately.
“Lily?”
“She’s safe.”
That was the first thing she asked.
Not about herself.
Not about me.
Lily.
I showed her a photo.
Nora touched the screen with trembling fingers.
Then she whispered:
“Your mother.”
My heart stopped.
“What about her?”
Nora swallowed painfully.
“She knows.”
“Knows what?”
“The money.”
I pulled my chair closer.
“Nora, did she do something to you?”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“She came over that night.”
I said nothing.
“She brought tea.”
My stomach turned.
Nora started crying.
“I remember drinking it.”
Then nothing.
The toxicology report had found a sedating medication Nora had never been prescribed.
Doctors couldn’t say exactly how it entered her body.
Now we had a possible explanation.
“Nora, did you fall?”
“I don’t remember.”
Then she grabbed my wrist.
“My phone.”
“We found it.”
“Where?”
I hesitated.
“In Mom’s bag.”
Nora closed her eyes.
May you like
When she opened them again, she whispered:
“Then she found the recording.”
