Chapter 3 - Ask Your Mother
Simone wasn't home when I got there. Neither was the SUV. Two detectives already were.
Bernard had insisted Mom stay with Mr. Callahan. I walked through my own house feeling like I'd wandered into somebody else's life. Our wedding photo hung above the fireplace — Simone laughing, me looking at her like she was the answer to every question I'd ever had.
Fifteen years. Fifteen years of birthdays, vacations, lazy Sunday mornings. How could that woman be the same person who'd forged my mother's signature?
Detective Reyes questioned me at the dining table. Had Simone ever handled Mom's finances? No. Did she know Mom's banking password? I didn't think so. Did Simone have access to Mom's house? Yes — spare keys, years ago. Did Simone know the trust existed?
Yes.
That answer stuck in my throat. Three years earlier, after Dad died, Simone had been in the room when Mom mentioned the trust. She'd joked, "Guess David won the lottery." Mom hadn't laughed. I remembered that clearly now.
"Did your wife have financial problems?" Reyes asked.
"Her boutique struggled."
"How badly?"
"I thought it was improving."
He studied me. "Mr. Bennett, people who steal from family don't always do it because they're broke."
"What does that mean?"
"Sometimes money's just evidence of a different problem."
Simone came home at 8:17 that evening. No purse. No phone. No keys. Makeup streaked from crying. She stopped dead when she saw the detectives.
"You called them."
I stood in the living room. "You forged my mother's signature."
Her face crumpled. "I didn't."
"Forty-seven thousand dollars."
"I took the money."
"You just admitted it."
"I know." She looked at the detectives. "But I did not forge that document."
Reyes said, "Mrs. Bennett, you should consider waiting for counsel."
She ignored him, eyes only on me. "David, I swear to you, I took the money. I deserve whatever happens for that. But the trust wasn't me."
"Why should I believe anything you say?"
"Because I didn't know about it."
"You knew about the trust."
"I knew there was one. I didn't know someone changed it."
I laughed, bitter. "It names you."
"I know!"
"Then who forged it?"
She stared at me. Then said something I never expected. "Ask your mother."
I nearly moved toward her before Reyes stepped between us. "Don't."
Simone started crying again. "David, please. Just ask her about March 14."
"What?"
"Ask Eleanor where she was on March 14."
Mom was asleep when I got to Mr. Callahan's house. I almost waited for morning. I couldn't. I sat beside her on the guest bed.
"Mom."
Her eyes opened. "David?"
"Where were you on March 14?"
Her whole face changed — only a flicker, but I saw it.
"Why?"
"Simone told me to ask."
She looked away. My heart started pounding. "Mom?"
She slowly sat up. "David, you're tired."
"Where were you?"
Silence. Then: "With Bernard."
I froze. "What?"
"I met him that afternoon."
"About the trust?"
"Yes."
I stood. "But Bernard said the amendment was forged."
"It was."
"Then why were you meeting him?"
She didn't answer. I stared at the woman who raised me — the person I trusted more than anyone alive.
"Mom."
Her eyes filled. "I was trying to protect you."
May you like
My stomach twisted. "From Simone?"
She whispered, "From the truth."
