Chapter 12 - Judith Finally Told The Truth About The Ring
Our attorneys arranged a meeting with Mom after the trust amendment had been authenticated.
She arrived angry.
Not ashamed.
Angry that the secret had been discovered.
Her lawyer advised her not to discuss certain financial issues.
So I kept the conversation narrow.
“The ring.”
Mom looked at me.
“What about it?”
“Why did you hide it?”
For several minutes she repeated the same denial.
Then our attorney placed Helen Morris’s signed statement on the table.
The tailoring receipt followed.
Then resort access records showing Mom personally delivered and collected the rabbit.
Her denial collapsed.
She sat back.
For the first time, she looked tired.
“I found the ring in Thomas’s study.”
“When?”
“The morning after he died.”
“That’s a lie. His study was sealed that morning.”
Mom’s jaw tightened.
Then she corrected herself.
“The night he died.”
There it was.
She had taken it before the estate inventory.
“Did you know about Box 0417?”
“Yes.”
“Did Dad tell you what was inside?”
“He told me enough.”
“What?”
“That he had changed the trust.”
I felt my stomach turn.
Mom knew from the beginning.
She knew Dad reduced her authority.
She knew he placed the amendment outside the house.
She knew the ring identified the box.
So she removed it.
“Why the rabbit?”
“At first I kept the ring in my safe.”
“Then?”
“The lawyers started cataloging personal effects.”
“So you used Ella.”
Mom’s face hardened.
“I used an object.”
Rachel, sitting beside me, finally spoke.
“No. You used a child because you understood nobody would search something she loved.”
Mom looked at her.
Then said something that revealed more than any confession.
“I never expected that girl to carry that ridiculous toy everywhere.”
That girl.
Her granddaughter.
The child she had pulled by the hair.
May you like
I finally understood Judith had not lost control for one afternoon.
She had been losing moral control for years.
