Chapter 5 - THE SIGNATURE THAT WASN'T HERS
"That's not my signature."
Anna did not hesitate.
I knew it wasn't either.
The shape was close.
But the final stroke was wrong.
My mother had practiced it well enough to fool someone who did not know Anna.
Not me.
Claire called Mom.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
I sent a message.
Where did you get those documents?
Mom replied less than a minute later.
Ask your wife.
I showed Anna.
She shook her head.
"I have never seen those papers."
Claire enlarged the photograph again.
There were several pages beneath the guardianship form.
One appeared to describe Anna as emotionally unstable.
Another listed supposed incidents of neglect.
Anna had not even given birth yet.
"She was building a story," Claire whispered.
The words made my stomach turn.
Mom had not simply been cruel.
She had been preparing.
Anna suddenly stood.
"I know where she kept things."
I looked at her.
"What things?"
"She had a blue folder."
"How do you know?"
"She dropped it once."
Anna's voice became quiet.
"I saw my name."
We went upstairs to the guest suite Mom had occupied for four years.
Most of her clothes were gone.
The room looked almost untouched.
Then Anna opened the bottom drawer of the desk.
Empty.
She frowned.
"It was here."
I checked the closet.
Nothing.
Claire searched the bathroom.
Then she called us.
"Look."
Behind a stack of towels was a small plastic key.
It belonged to a fireproof document box.
I remembered one in the basement.
We found it twenty minutes later.
The key fit.
Inside was the blue folder.
There were screenshots of private texts between Anna and me.
Copies of prenatal appointment schedules.
Notes about arguments Anna and Mom had supposedly had.
A printout from a parenting website about postpartum depression.
And several pages where my mother had written dates beside words like crying, tired, emotional, isolated, and unstable.
Anna sank onto a basement chair.
"She was documenting my pregnancy like it was evidence."
I kept turning pages.
Then I found the worst one.
It was a draft letter addressed to me.
Ethan, I know this will be difficult to accept, but Anna is not safe around the baby.
I stopped reading.
Claire took it from me.
At the bottom, Mom had written another sentence by hand.
Once he believes she is unstable, he will ask me to stay and help.
Everything became clear.
Mom did not just want Anna gone.
She wanted to become necessary again.
Then Anna reached into the box.
Her fingers closed around a small black notebook.
She opened it.
Several pages contained dates and amounts of money.
The final entry was from three weeks earlier.
May you like
Beside it, Mom had written five words.
Lawyer says act before birth.
