I followed his instructions exactly.
Then I spoke with Mrs. Gable, our longtime neighbor.
She had seen my mother, Mason, and Chloe leave three days earlier.
“They were all smiles,” Mrs. Gable told me, shaking her head. “Mason was bragging that they were finally traveling ‘like rich people.’ I asked Evelyn about Victor, and she just shrugged and said, ‘He’s sleeping. He doesn’t need anyone bothering him.’”
As the afternoon passed, Victor’s strength declined.
He eventually asked me to close and lock his bedroom door.
“There’s something your mother never knew, Maya.”
I assumed he was going to tell me about some medical debt or unpaid account he had kept hidden.
Instead, he pointed toward his closet and asked me to pull down a leather briefcase hidden behind a row of winter coats.
I placed it on the bed and opened it.
Inside were legal contracts, private investment statements, property documents, and certified trust records.
