Chapter 4 - MY NAME ON THE PAGE
I handed Ortiz the phone.
She read the message twice.
“Did you authorize those withdrawals?”
“No.”
“Have you ever signed documents for your uncle without reading them?”
The answer came too slowly.
After my father died, Martin had brought folders to the house.
Beneficiary forms.
Tax documents.
Routine administration, he called it.
I remembered signing at my kitchen counter while Maya made coffee.
“I don't know what I signed.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Not in surprise.
That was worse.
Ortiz told me to preserve my messages and get my own legal advice.
Then she left us alone.
“I'll fix this,” I said.
Maya turned toward the window.
“You keep saying things like you can make a phone call and put everything back.”
“What do you need?”
“For you to stop deciding what I need.”
I sat down.
For once, I didn't try to fill the silence.
That afternoon, I called an attorney named Daniel Price, recommended by a colleague who knew nothing about my family.
He met me in a hospital conference room.
“Start with what you know,” he said.
“Separate it from what you're afraid of.”
What I knew filled half a page.
What I feared could have filled the room.
Daniel reviewed the trust documents I could access online.
My father had created separate shares for me and my younger sister, Nora.
Martin administered the accounts.
My mother received her own income from the estate.
“Your sister should know about this,” Daniel said.
“We haven't spoken in four years.”
“Why?”
“Mom said she took money after Dad died.”
Daniel looked up.
I heard myself.
The same accusation.
The same convenient source.
Nora had left after a screaming argument at my mother's house.
I had called her once, angry and certain.
She had told me to ask for the statements.
I had called that an excuse.
My phone rang before I could say anything else.
It was Aunt Ruth, my mother's older sister.
“Your mother called me from the station,” she said.
“Caleb, listen carefully.”
“If you're asking me to help her—”
“I'm asking you to protect your wife.”
I stopped.
Ruth's breath trembled.
“I saw Martin at your house yesterday. He carried a blue folder into the backyard.”
“Why didn't you call someone?”
“I didn't know Maya was there.”
May you like
Then she said the words that made Daniel reach for a pen.
“Your mother told me Maya had already left you.”
