Brandon had never forgotten where the money was.
He knew exactly where it had gone.
He knew with absolute certainty that my mother had not taken a single dollar from his desk.
And he accused her anyway.
He humiliated her.
He struck her.
Then he tried to force her out of the apartment.
When I explained what we had discovered to Mom later at the hotel, her face went pale.
Then she remembered something she had never told me.
“Sweetie,” she said carefully, “did Brandon ever ask you about the money I received from selling your father’s land?”
My stomach tightened.
“What did he say to you, Mom?”
“He approached me several times. He said he knew some very profitable investment opportunities that could grow the money.”
“How much was he trying to get from you?”
“He never gave me an exact figure. But he kept pressuring me to tell him how much inheritance money I had.”
