Chapter 4: What Aunt Ros Already Knew
"You were wondering when I'd call," I repeated.
"What does that mean?"
Aunt Ros was quiet for a moment.
The kind of quiet that means someone is choosing their words carefully, which was not something Aunt Ros usually did.
"Your brother called me last week," she said finally.
"James called you."
"He said he was worried about you.
That you'd been saying things.
To your mother.
About the family."
My husband was watching me from across the kitchen.
I put the call on speaker and set the phone on the counter between us.
"What kind of things?" I said.
"He said you'd told your mother that Dad had always loved James more.
That you'd said it more than once.
That you'd been stirring things up for months."
"Ros.
You know me."
"I do know you," she said.
"That's why I didn't say anything to your mother when she brought it up."
"She brought it up?"
"Two weeks ago.
She called me and said she was worried about you.
That James had been keeping her informed." A pause.
"She used those words.
Keeping her informed.
Like he was filing reports."
I pressed my palm flat on the counter.
"Did she believe him?" I said.
"She wanted to.
You know how she is with James.
She always has been." Another pause, longer this time.
"But I'll tell you something.
The night she called me, I asked her one question.
I said, has she actually done any of these things in front of you?
Has she said any of this to your face?
And your mother went very quiet."
"What did she say?"
"She said James had witnessed it.
That he'd been there."
"He wasn't there," I said.
"None of it happened."
"I know," Ros said.
"That's what I thought."
My husband exhaled slowly through his nose.
"Ros, I need to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me.
Do you know anything about my parents updating their will?"
The silence this time was different.
Longer.
More careful.
"Where did you hear that?" she said.
"Dad mentioned it to me in March.
Just briefly."
"He mentioned it to me too," Ros said.
"In April.
He called me, which he almost never does.
He said he and your mother had been talking to a solicitor.
Getting things sorted." She stopped.
"He also said James had been helping them with it.
Driving them to appointments.
Sitting in on the meetings."
My husband's hand came down flat on the table.
"Sitting in on the meetings," I said.
"That's what he told me.
I didn't think much of it at the time.
James lives closer.
He has more flexibility.
I thought he was just being helpful."
"He wasn't being helpful," I said.
"No," Ros said quietly.
"I'm starting to understand that."
I looked at my husband.
He was already reaching for his own phone.
"Ros, I need you to do something for me.
I need you to call my mother tomorrow.
Not tonight — tomorrow, when she's had time to sleep.
And I need you to ask her one question."
"What question?"
"Ask her if she's seen the actual documents.
Ask her if she knows what they say."
Ros was quiet for a long moment.
"You think he's changed something."
"I think he's been working toward something for a long time," I said.
"And I think tonight was never about the TV."
After I hung up, my husband looked at me across the counter.
"If he's been sitting in on those meetings," he said, "we need to know who the solicitor is."
"I know," I said.
"And I know exactly who to ask."
My phone lit up on the counter.
May you like
A text from a number I didn't recognize.
*You should know what your brother said about your husband.*
