Chapter 7 - My Mother Had Paid Lucy in Secret
The investigation found a strange series of personal checks.
Not from my father.
From:
Evelyn.
Over eighteen months after Lucy left, my mother wrote twelve checks totaling:
$48,000.
Payee:
Lucille Carver.
Most never cleared.
Three did.
Total:
$9,000.
I stared at the copies.
“Why?”
Lucy looked embarrassed.
“Your mother tried to help.”
“With what?”
“Rent.”
“Lawyer fees.”
“Starting over.”
I felt anger flare.
“You took money from her after telling me nothing?”
Lucy looked at me steadily.
“I was fired.”
“Accused publicly.”
“Living on my sister’s sofa.”
“Your mother believed she had helped create it.”
I stopped.
Fair.
Then:
“Why didn’t you cash the rest?”
“Your father found out.”
He confronted Evelyn.
Told her any further payments would be treated as:
admission of conspiracy
in Lucy’s alleged theft.
That legal threat was probably exaggerated.
It worked.
Evelyn stopped.
Lucy returned later checks unopened.
Then my mother did something else.
She wrote:
letters.
Dozens.
Never mailed.
We found them in a locked document box inside the storage unit holding Evelyn’s personal papers after her death.
Letters to:
Lucy.
Me.
Her attorney.
One said:
I let Mariana believe you betrayed her because Edward said it was the only way to keep her from becoming involved. I told myself she was sixteen and should be protected. I know now I protected the wrong person.
I read that sentence alone.
Then again with Alejandro.
Then with Lucy.
Lucy cried quietly.
I became furious at:
my dead mother.
Which feels pointless.
Then guilty for being furious because:
she had been afraid.
Then angry at myself for using fear to excuse her too quickly.
Alejandro said:
“You can understand why someone did something and still say it harmed you.”
That sentence eventually became useful.
At the time, I wanted someone:
alive
to blame.
Lucy refused the position.
She said:
“Your mother was trapped in ways you couldn’t see.”
I answered:
“She still lied to me.”
“Yes.”
Both.
May you like
Again.
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