That doesn’t make Mom a criminal.”
“Helping you wasn’t the problem,” I said.
“Lying to her was.”
Rebecca gave a sharp laugh.
“You’re making this sound sinister because you want the house.”
I reached into the safe again.
Under the notebook were copies of loan papers, bank correspondence, receipts from my repayments, and a sealed envelope the lawyer had already opened in my presence that morning.
The police report was inside.
Rebecca stared at it.
“What did she report?”
This time there was fear in her voice.
I handed the report to my brother-in-law instead of to her.
“Read it.”
He hesitated.
Rebecca turned on him immediately.
“Don’t.
This is Clara’s little performance.”
He took the pages anyway.
As he read, his expression changed.
Daniela watched him.
“Dad?”
He looked at Rebecca.
“You told me the notary meeting never happened.”
Rebecca’s face hardened.
“Because it didn’t.”
I reached into the safe for the photograph.
It was old and slightly bent at one corner.
Rebecca was clearly visible walking out of a notary public’s office beside our mother, who was seated in a wheelchair.
The date stamped on the back matched the date Mom had written in her notebook.
It was also a date Rebecca had told the rest of us she was out of town.
I placed the photograph on the table.
Daniela leaned toward it.
“That’s Grandma.”
Rebecca snatched it up.
“A photograph proves nothing.”
“Turn it over.”
She didn’t.
Daniela took it from her.
On the back, in Mom’s handwriting, was a sentence:
“On this day, she tried to sell my house while I was still breathing.”
Daniela read it twice.
Then she looked at her mother as if she no longer recognized her.
“You tried to sell Grandma’s house?”
“No.”
Rebecca answered too quickly.
“She misunderstood.
We were discussing options.”
My brother-in-law was still holding the police report.
“It says here she told police you brought documents for her signature and represented them as refinancing papers.”
Rebecca stepped toward him.
“Give me that.”
He moved the report away from her.
I had never seen him do that before.
“Did you try to transfer the property?” he asked.
Rebecca’s jaw tightened.
“I was trying to protect it.”
