Chapter 7: The Choice at the Door
Brandon waited on the courthouse steps while Brenda and Elaine hurried toward the parking lot.
I held up my hand when he approached.
“Did you deliver that application?”
“Yes,” he said.
Brenda stopped walking.
“Don’t say another word.”
He looked at her, then back at me.
“She told me it was a refinancing package.”
“You saw my name.”
“She said you had agreed.”
“After you watched her throw my belongings onto the lawn, did that still sound believable?”
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Brenda marched back.
“He made one delivery.
That does not make him responsible.”
“You sent him because you did not want the bank camera to see you,” I said.
“Prove it.”
Martin raised the flash drive.
“Your call did.”
Brenda lunged for it, but Daniel pulled Martin back.
The drive fell onto the pavement.
Elaine grabbed it and ran toward a storm drain.
“Mom, stop!” Brenda shouted.
Mrs.
Gable, who had come to hear the ruling, planted her shoe over the drain opening.
Elaine froze with the drive clenched in her fist.
“You put Catherine’s memories in the dirt,” Mrs.
Gable said.
“You’re not putting her proof there too.”
A courthouse officer approached.
Elaine slowly handed the drive to Daniel.
Brenda turned to me.
“What do you want?”
“My home returned.
My money repaid.
My furniture located.
The truth recorded.”
“I can give you some of that.”
“All of it.”
She lowered her voice.
“Withdraw your complaint, and I’ll let you be part of the baby’s life.”
“You keep saying ‘let’ as if love belongs to whoever controls the door.”
“You think Brandon will forgive you when his wife faces charges?”
Brandon stepped beside me.
“This is not Mom’s fault.”
Brenda stared at him.
“Choose carefully.”
“I should have chosen carefully eight months ago.”
Her expression hardened.
“Then come home and help me pack.”
“No.”
The single word made her step back.
“I’m going to tell the investigator what I knew,” he said.
“I’ll return every dollar I spent, even if it takes years.”
“You’ll destroy our family.”
“I already helped you hurt it.”
Brenda removed her wedding ring and pressed it into his palm.
“When this child asks why there is no father at home, I’ll tell them their grandmother cared more about a house than family.”
I moved closer.
“Tell that child the whole truth.
Tell them you tried to take an elderly woman’s home while she was b*rying her sister.”
For once, Brenda had no quick reply.
A vehicle from the county investigator’s office pulled up.
Two officials stepped out and spoke first to Daniel, then to Brenda and Elaine.
Brenda pointed at me.
“You will regret this, Catherine.
One day you’ll sit in that house alone and realize you won nothing.”
I picked up the wedding ring after it slipped from Brandon’s hand.
“No,” I said.
“I lost what I thought my family was.
That is not the same as losing myself.”
One investigator asked Brenda to accompany him for a formal interview.
Elaine was directed toward the second vehicle.
Brenda paused at the door.
“I hope the house keeps you warm.”
I looked at Brandon, then at Mrs.
Gable standing beside me.
“It already sheltered the people I loved,” I said.
“Now it will shelter only those who know how to love me back.”
As the vehicle pulled away, Daniel opened a message from the bank investigator.
May you like
“They found where the furniture was sold,” he said.
“But Catherine, one piece is scheduled for auction tomorrow morning—and the buyer has already paid a deposit.”
