Chapter 10 - THE CALL HE WOULDN'T ANSWER
"They planned to take my company," I said.
"Possibly," Nia replied. "The language could give them leverage in a default. We have to review the full package, including the original signatures."
I hated the word possibly. I'd spent three years with Alex using it as a hiding place.
Laura's colleague filed notices disputing the authorization and asked the court to preserve the property while the signatures and money trail were investigated. It wasn't a magic fix. There would be hearings, invoices, sworn statements. I wanted the whole thing finished by lunch.
Instead, Laura handed me a voicemail from Rosa Alvarez, the Bennett estate's manager.
Rosa had worked there since Alex was in high school. She used to make me a cup of cinnamon tea whenever Diane made me cry in the pantry. It embarrassed me that she knew the exact amount of sugar I liked.
"I called him four times," Rosa said when I met her at Laura's office. "Four. I thought he'd stop it."
"Stop what?"
"The movers. They arrived at the east gate the morning you fell. Mrs. Bennett had given them a list of your things. The piano bench, the paintings from your mother, your winter coats. She told them to put everything in storage before Victoria's party."
"My piano bench?" I said. It came out small and stupid. Of all the things to care about.
Rosa nodded. "You kept your mother's sheet music in it. I remembered."
I covered my mouth. Rosa waited while I steadied myself.
"I wouldn't let them in," she continued. "I called Alex because the security policy says the resident has to approve personal property removal. He didn't pick up."
"Did you leave a message?"
"Every time."
She played the first one. Her voice sounded hurried: Mr. Bennett, your mother says Mrs. Bennett is moving out. I don't have authorization. Please call me before these men take her belongings.
The next was shorter. I know you're busy, sir. But I don't think Erin knows.
The final message made the room seem cold.
Your wife hasn't answered her phone. Something's wrong. Call me.
"How did you know?" I asked.
Rosa hesitated. "Maddy called the estate looking for him after the ambulance left. I was trying to reach you both."
I looked at the timestamp. The last message arrived when Alex was in the hospital with Victoria. I remembered his face when he saw me in the wheelchair. He'd pretended he had no idea how I was hurt.
Rosa pulled a folded inventory from her purse. She'd written STOP in red ink across the top.
"I couldn't stop everything," she said. "Mrs. Bennett had the contractors empty the nursery a week earlier."
"There wasn't a nursery," I whispered.
"There was to you."
The room went blurry. I folded the inventory down the middle and then unfolded it again, ruining Rosa's careful creases.
"I'm sorry," I told her.
"Don't apologize for the paper, honey."
That evening, Alex came to my office. Laura had advised me not to meet him alone; Maddy stayed in the conference room with her phone on the table.
He looked thinner. For a moment I wondered whether he'd been eating.
"I heard about the lawyers and the bank," he said. "Mom has a way of getting ahead of herself."
"Did you tell her to move my things?"
"I told her we needed space."
"Did you know there was a loan against my mother's building?"
He rubbed a hand over his face. "I knew about funding the renovations. I didn't know your property was collateral."
It might have been true. That didn't make the rest less true.
"And the box?" I asked.
He stopped rubbing his face.
"What box?"
"The white one. The ultrasound you opened while I was bleeding on the floor."
His eyes went to Maddy, then back to me.
"You have the video," he said.
I nodded.
May you like
He sat down without asking, and whispered the one thing I hadn't expected him to say.
"I thought you might be pregnant before I walked into the office."
