Chapter 3 - The Hidden LetterAt seven o'clock that evening, while I was reviewing the financial records with Marcus over the phone, my phone chimed with a private text notification.
It was an email attachment from my mother’s personal account, sent while Lena and Derek were out at a steakhouse celebrating their "victory."
Attached was a scanned image of a handwritten letter, written in my mother’s shaky handwriting, dated two days prior:
My dearest Audrey,
If you are reading this, it means I was too weak to stop them. Forgive me, my sweet girl. Derek found out that the house deed was originally put in your name and mine jointly by your father before he died.
Derek told me that if I didn't sign the paper allowing them to take full control, he would turn Lena over to the police for the money she took from her old employer. I was terrified. I lost your father, and I couldn't bear to see Lena go to prison.
They forced me to stay quiet today, Audrey. They told me you were making enough money to move out anyway. But I tucked your father’s original house deed inside the back lining of your Bible. Don't let them take what your father built.
I love you, my brave nurse. Please forgive your cowardly mother.
Tears welled in my eyes as I set the phone down.
I turned to the brown paper bag on the nightstand, picked up my mother’s old Bible, and unzipped the worn black leather cover.
Tucked neatly inside the back fabric lining was the original 2018 county property deed, stamped with the official seal: JOINT TENANTS WITH RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP — CLARA BENNETT & AUDREY BENNETT.
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I was fifty percent legal owner of the house.
And without my signature, any loan, mortgage transfer, or property sale executed by Derek was a major federal crime.
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