Chapter 6
By noon, the case changed.
It was no longer just threats.
No longer just borrowed money.
It was fraud.
Identity theft.
Forgery.
Elder abuse.
Marital theft.
Mara moved fast.
Detective Alvarez moved faster.
Victor was released by evening, but his accounts were flagged.
His office computer was seized two days later.
That was when everything cracked open.
Victor had debts.
Not normal debts.
Gambling debts.
Private loans.
Business losses hidden from me.
He had been taking money from my mother to cover one hole and stealing from me to cover another.
And behind all of it was his father.
Harold Crane.
A man I had met twice.
Both times, Victor told me Harold was “complicated.”
That meant cruel.
Detective Alvarez showed us messages between them.
Harold: Ruth is old. Push harder.
Victor: Anna is getting suspicious.
Harold: Then make her think the old woman is unstable.
I stared at the screen until the words blurred.
Make her think the old woman is unstable.
My mother sat beside me, silent.
Too silent.
I turned to her.
“Mom.”
She whispered, “He almost did.”
My chest hurt.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“When I couldn’t explain the missing money, when I kept losing track of what Victor said… I thought maybe I was forgetting things.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I made a doctor appointment, Anna. I thought I might be getting sick.”
I wanted to scream.
Victor had not only taken money.
He had stolen my mother’s trust in her own mind.
That night, I went back to the house with police escort to collect my things.
Victor was not allowed there.
But his mother, Elaine, was.
She stood in the doorway wearing a cream sweater and a smile like a knife.
“Anna,” she said. “This has gone far enough.”
I looked at her.
“You knew.”
She sighed.
“My son made mistakes.”
“He threatened my mother.”
“Your mother interfered in your marriage.”
I laughed.
“She gave him forty thousand dollars.”
Elaine’s eyes hardened.
“And now you want to punish him for needing help?”
I stepped closer.
May you like
“No. I want to punish him for hunting the woman who raised me.”
For the first time, Elaine stopped smiling.
