Chapter 6: The Truth My Mother Carried
I could not speak.
Nick placed his hand beneath mine to stop the phone from slipping.
“Hannah?” my mother said again.
“Please don’t hang up.”
“Why didn’t you come for me?”
The question left me before I could soften it.
Everyone in the shop went still.
“I tried,” she said.
“No.
Rose said you were afraid.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Those are not the same thing.”
“You’re right.”
Martha moved toward the rear door.
Celia locked it before she could reach the handle.
“You’re staying,” Celia said.
My mother’s voice trembled through the phone.
“Martha moved money from the business and put the accounts in my name.
When I discovered it, she threatened to say I had done it.”
Rose opened the ledger on the counter.
“Eleanor, I found your records.”
“Then turn to the final page.”
Rose did.
A notarized statement had been folded into the back cover.
“What is it?” I asked.
“My confession,” Martha said sharply.
“That’s what she wants you to believe.”
My mother answered her.
“No, Martha.
It’s the statement your husband signed after he saw you changing the accounts.”
Nick stared at the paper.
“My father knew?”
“He confronted her,” my mother said.
“She promised to return everything if he stayed quiet.”
Martha’s palm struck the counter.
“He was protecting his family!”
“He was protecting Nick from you,” Rose replied.
Martha turned on Nick.
“Your father chose me until the day he died.”
“Then why did he hide this statement from you?”
“He hid nothing.”
Rose held up a small note attached to the document.
“It says, ‘For Rose, when Nick is old enough to hear the truth.’”
Nick’s face crumpled.
I reached for his hand, though mine was still shaking.
“Mom,” I said into the phone, “tell me what happened to us.”
Martha spoke over her.
“She left you with relatives because she cared more about escaping than raising you.”
“Be quiet,” I said.
Martha blinked.
“You do not speak for my mother again.”
My mother took a slow breath.
“Martha told me she would have me prosecuted and make sure you went into foster care.
Your aunt on your father’s side agreed to keep you temporarily.”
“She raised me until I was eighteen.”
“I wrote every month.
The letters came back unopened.”
Rose pulled a bundle from the envelope.
“I found twelve of them in Martha’s old office cabinet.”
I stared at the dates.
Birthdays.
Christmases.
My high-school graduation.
“You had these?” I asked Martha.
“She was unstable.”
“You stole twenty years from us.”
“I protected a child from a disgraced mother.”
My mother’s voice grew stronger.
“No, you protected yourself from the woman who knew what you had done.”
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
A sound escaped anyway, and Nick wrapped both arms around me.
“I thought you didn’t love me,” I said.
“Oh, Hannah.” My mother began crying.
“I loved you so much that I let fear make every decision.
That was wrong.
I should have fought harder.”
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
“Can you come here?”
“If you still want me to.”
“I don’t know how to forgive twenty years tonight.”
“You don’t have to.
Just let me stand in front of you and tell you the truth.”
A heavy knock sounded at the shop entrance.
Two uniformed officers stood outside beside Martha’s lawyer.
Martha’s frightened expression disappeared.
“There,” she said.
“This nonsense is over.”
The lawyer entered and pointed at Rose.
“My client reports that Rose broke into a private safe-deposit box and stole confidential documents.”
Rose’s face drained of color.
“That box belonged to Eleanor.”
“The bank records list Martha as the current owner,” he replied.
One officer reached for the ledger.
Martha smiled at me.
“By morning, Rose will be in custody, the ledger will be sealed as stolen property, and you will have nothing.”
Then the second officer looked at Martha.
“Ma’am, we also need to discuss a complaint concerning a forged signature.”
Martha’s smile held.
“Of course,” she said.
May you like
“But first, ask Hannah who gave Rose access to that box.”
Everyone looked at me, and I realized Martha had arranged one final trap.
