Chapter 8 - HER VERSION
The photograph had been taken while I sat on the edge of the bed.
I hadn’t seen Vanessa lift her phone.
Under it, she had written:
Watching someone you love struggle emotionally is heartbreaking. We tried to help, and now we’re being punished. Please keep our family in your prayers.
I read it twice.
She had turned my humiliation into evidence against me.
Comments piled up.
So sorry.
Memory problems can make people mean.
You two are saints.
Then one from Daniel’s aunt Elaine.
Call me. We’ll figure this out together.
My phone started ringing.
I let every call go to voicemail.
Ruth sat beside me.
“Want me to answer?”
“No.”
I took screenshots and sent them to Arthur.
Then I called Elaine.
She answered immediately.
“Margaret, what is going on?”
“Before I explain, did you speak to Daniel?”
“He said you cut your own hair during an episode.”
I closed my eyes.
“He said that?”
“He said you’re confused about money.”
Ruth’s hand closed around mine.
I told Elaine what had happened.
Then, with Arthur’s advice about protecting the evidence in mind, I showed her the hallway recording privately.
She watched in silence.
When Daniel handed Vanessa the scissors, Elaine covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Did he ask you for anything?”
A pause.
“Ten thousand dollars.
He said it was for your care.”
I turned toward Ruth.
She already knew from my face.
“Have you sent it?”
“Not yet.”
“Please don’t.”
An hour later, Vanessa’s post disappeared.
The screenshots stayed.
That afternoon, I received a message from a woman named Melissa Grant.
I knew her vaguely.
She had been one of Vanessa’s visitors.
I’m not sure whether I should contact you, but I saw the post before it came down. I have something you should see.
I asked her to send it to Arthur’s office.
She did.
It was a conversation from two weeks before the haircut.
Vanessa had sent Melissa photographs of my study.
The walls.
The desk.
The shelves.
Melissa had asked whether I had agreed to the renovation.
Vanessa’s reply sat in a blue bubble beneath the picture of Richard’s chair.
She will. Daniel knows how to handle her.
Then another message.
We need to get this done before she changes the paperwork. Once the house backs the loan, she can’t just throw us out.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
The haircut hadn’t started their plan.
It had come after I got in its way.
