CHAPTER 7
Phedra began her first new round of treatment four days before the settlement was supposed to arrive.
I sat beside her while the nurse connected the medication.
Her fingers were cold.
“You can still leave,” she whispered.
I stared at her.
“Leave?”
“You hate hospitals.”
“I hate cauliflower too. I still survived cafeteria lunch.”
She smiled weakly.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
I moved my chair closer.
“I spent four years away from you because I thought distance was temporary.”
My throat tightened.
“I’m not voluntarily giving up another minute.”
She looked down.
“You have work.”
“The plant is shut down.”
“For now.”
“And if it opens?”
“I’ll deal with that when it happens.”
She studied my face.
“Calgary was your whole plan.”
“No.”
“You talked about staying another two years.”
“That was before.”
“Before the settlement?”
“Before I found you picking broken glass off the ground.”
Her eyes filled.
I lowered my voice.
“The plan changed.”
Treatment exhausted her.
By evening, she was asleep.
I stepped into the hallway and found Naomi waiting.
“That can’t be good,” I said.
“I need to show you something.”
She handed me a printout.
A property search.
Godfrey’s auto business had several outstanding debts.
More than he had admitted.
“How bad?”
“He owes suppliers. Equipment financing. A short-term commercial lender.”
“How much?”
“Enough that four hundred thousand dollars would not be expansion money.”
I stared at her.
“It would be rescue money.”
“Exactly.”
The investment proposal suddenly made sense.
Godfrey’s business was collapsing.
He did not want my settlement to grow.
He wanted it to survive.
“Did he borrow using my name?”
“We’re checking.”
Naomi pointed to one entry.
“This loan lists a personal guarantor whose details are not publicly visible.”
My stomach tightened.
“Could be me.”
“Could be your mother.”
“Could be anybody.”
“Yes.”
I hated uncertainty.
Naomi reminded me that investigators would obtain what we could not.
“Your job right now is Phedra.”
I looked through the glass at my wife.
“I know.”
But trouble came to us anyway.
At 2:13 the next morning, my phone rang.
It was our former neighbor, Mr. Doss.
“Damian?”
I sat up beside Phedra’s bed.
“What happened?”
“Someone’s at your house.”
“My mother lives there.”
“No. The back.”
I stood.
“What are they doing?”
“I heard breaking glass. Then I saw Godfrey carrying boxes from the shed.”
My pulse jumped.
“Call the police.”
“I already did.”
I did not wake Phedra.
I called Naomi.
Then I took a taxi.
By the time I arrived, two police vehicles were parked outside.
Godfrey stood in the yard shouting.
Selina was crying.
Smoke drifted from a metal drum near the shed.
My chest went cold.
An officer stopped me.
“Sir, stay here.”
“What was burning?”
“We’re checking.”
Godfrey saw me.
“This is your fault!”
I stared at the drum.
Blackened paper curled inside it.
My papers.
Phedra’s papers.
Evidence.
“You tried to burn her notebook?”
Godfrey lunged forward.
Two officers blocked him.
“I was cleaning!”
“At two in the morning?”
“It’s my property!”
“It’s partly mine.”
Selina rushed toward me.
“Damian, stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“Godfrey panicked.”
He turned on her.
“Mom!”
She realized too late what she had said.
The nearest officer noticed.
“Panicked about what?”
Selina stared at him.
“Nothing.”
Godfrey started shouting again.
I looked toward the shed.
One window had been broken.
Boxes were scattered outside.
The mattress had been dragged halfway through the doorway.
But Godfrey had made one mistake.
He had assumed Phedra’s notebook was still there.
It was already with Naomi.
So were the hospital letters.
So were photographs of the shed before anyone touched it.
Godfrey had burned mostly old receipts and household papers.
Still, his decision mattered.
Naomi arrived twenty minutes later.
She spoke to officers.
Mr. Doss gave a statement.
His security camera also captured part of the yard.
Godfrey carrying boxes.
Godfrey lighting the barrel.
Selina standing beside him.
They both claimed they were removing contaminated items because Phedra had cancer.
Even one of the officers looked stunned by that explanation.
Cancer was not contagious.
But lies became desperate when the truth started closing in.
I walked toward Selina.
She looked older than she had four days earlier.
“Why?”
She shook her head.
“Don’t.”
“Why burn anything?”
“You’ve turned everyone against us.”
“I haven’t told everyone anything.”
“You brought lawyers.”
“You brought fraud.”
Her face twisted.
“You don’t know what sacrifice means.”
I almost laughed.
“You keep using that word.”
“Because it’s true.”
“No. Sacrifice is giving up something that belongs to you.”
I pointed toward the house.
“You gave away Phedra’s food.”
“The family had expenses.”
“Her treatment.”
“Godfrey needed help.”
“My money.”
“I am your mother!”
The yard went silent.
Even Godfrey stopped yelling.
There it was.
The belief beneath everything.
Not that she had made difficult choices.
Not that she had misunderstood my wishes.
She believed my money belonged to her because I belonged to her.
I stepped closer.
“You raised a son.”
My voice was quiet.
“You didn’t purchase one.”
Selina stared at me.
The officers separated us before the argument continued.
Godfrey was taken to the station for questioning over the destruction of property and possible evidence connected to an active fraud investigation.
Selina was allowed to remain at the house.
For now.
On the drive back, guilt began gnawing at me.
Phedra woke when I entered.
“Where were you?”
I stopped.
There was no point lying.
“Godfrey tried to burn things from the shed.”
Her face went white.
“What things?”
“Nothing important. We already have the notebook.”
She closed her eyes.
I sat beside her.
“I’m sorry I left without telling you.”
“I understand.”
“No. You asked me not to run after trouble.”
“You went because there were police.”
“That’s not the point.”
She opened her eyes.
“What is the point?”
I looked at her.
“The point is I don’t want to become another person who decides what’s best for you without asking.”
Phedra stared at me for a long time.
Then she reached for my hand.
“Thank you.”
I stayed beside her until sunrise.
At seven, Martin called.
“Damian, investigators identified the bank account from the first fraudulent settlement instruction.”
I stood and moved toward the window.
“Whose?”
“It belongs to a company.”
My chest tightened.
“Godfrey’s?”
“No.”
I frowned.
“Then whose?”
Martin hesitated.
“The company is registered to your mother.”
I looked at Phedra.
Four days remained.
May you like
And Selina was no longer standing behind Godfrey.
She was standing in front of him.
