“You’re both leaving.”
Mom laughed nervously.
“This is my home.”
I pulled out the property documents I’d reviewed that morning.
“No.”
The house had been purchased in my name.
Mom had been allowed to live there.
That was all.
“You wouldn’t throw your own mother out.”
I looked at Gwen.
At the woman who had been sleeping beside mold while Mom slept upstairs.
“You threw my wife out of her own bedroom.”
Mom had nothing to say.
Then Gwen whispered:
“Daniel.”
I turned.
She looked terrified.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
She pointed upstairs.
“Your mother’s closet.”
“I found everything.”
Gwen shook her head.
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“Not the box.”
“The blue folder behind the dresser.”
Mom suddenly lunged forward.
“Gwen, shut your mouth!”
That reaction told me everything.
I went upstairs.
Mom followed, begging now.
“Daniel, please. You don’t understand.”
Behind the dresser was a thin blue folder.
