Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF LOOKING PERFECT
Theresa came to my apartment that afternoon.
I did not invite her.
Rachel did.
When I opened the door and saw Mom standing beside my sister, every muscle in my body tightened.
“No.”
Rachel touched my arm.
“Please.”
“I've had enough surprises.”
“So have I.”
Mom looked older than she had twenty-four hours earlier.
No pearls.
No silk.
No perfect hair.
She wore a beige coat and carried her handbag with both hands.
“I will leave if you ask me to.”
I almost did.
Then Chloe appeared behind me.
She looked at Theresa.
Grandma smiled automatically.
Chloe did not smile back.
That seemed to age Mom another five years.
I stepped aside.
“Ten minutes.”
Mom entered.
Her eyes landed immediately on Dad’s watch.
Then the ring.
Then the photographs.
Her face collapsed.
“So you found everything.”
“No,” I said. “Apparently you've made that impossible.”
She sat.
Rachel remained standing.
“Why did you take Valerie’s share?”
Mom looked at her.
“Rachel—”
“No. Don't protect me anymore.”
That sentence hit harder than shouting.
Theresa looked down.
“It started with your school.”
Rachel's face went blank.
I had guessed correctly.
Mom continued.
“You were miserable after we moved. You stopped eating properly. You cried every morning. St. Catherine’s had smaller classes.”
Rachel said quietly, “So you took Valerie’s money.”
“I borrowed against Newport.”
“My half?” I asked.
Mom looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Without telling Dad?”
“At first.”
“Without telling me?”
“You were thirteen.”
“It was still mine.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew it then.”
She flinched.
Good.
Theresa clasped her hands.
“Your father found out. He was furious. I promised to repay it.”
“Did you?”
“Some.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“That's a no.”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“Then Tom’s business began failing.”
I frowned.
“He told me business was fine.”
“He was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From the truth.”
She looked toward Dad’s photograph.
“We had debt. More than either of you knew.”
Suddenly, another version of my childhood opened.
Dad staying late at work.
Mom obsessing over appearances.
Arguments that stopped when we entered rooms.
“The house,” Theresa continued. “The cars. School. Everything looked stable because I was terrified of anyone discovering we weren’t.”
Rachel stared at her.
“So you kept taking money.”
“Yes.”
“From Valerie.”
“Mostly.”
That word hurt.
Mostly.
Theresa turned toward me.
“You were strong.”
I laughed.
There it was.
The family sentence I had heard my whole life.
Valerie will understand.
Valerie can handle it.
Valerie doesn't need as much.
“You punished me because I survived things.”
“I told myself you would be all right.”
“You never checked.”
She looked down.
“No.”
Rachel's voice shook.
“And me?”
Mom looked at her.
“I thought you needed protecting.”
“You made me cruel.”
“No.”
For the first time, Theresa answered firmly.
“I gave you excuses. You chose cruelty.”
Rachel went still.
Mom continued.
“I favored you. I made you believe that favor meant you were better. That was my failure.”
Rachel began crying.
“But what you said to Valerie and Chloe at your wedding was yours.”
The room went quiet.
It was the first truly honest thing Theresa had said.
Rachel wiped her face.
“Then why lie about Newport after Dad died?”
Mom’s shoulders dropped.
“Because by then the amount was too large.”
“How large?” I asked.
She named a number.
I stopped breathing.
Years of rental income.
Loans.
Equity.
Hundreds of thousands.
Not all spent on Rachel.
Some went toward Dad’s business debts.
Some toward Theresa’s lifestyle.
Some toward keeping a house none of us could truly afford.
Some toward replacing money already taken.
A hole dug to fill another hole.
“Dad knew?” I asked.
“Enough.”
“And he forgave you?”
Theresa closed her eyes.
“He forgave the first time.”
Not the rest.
The grocery note suddenly made sense.
If I don't fix Newport before surgery, Valerie must be told the truth.
Dad planned to remove Mom’s control.
He never got the chance.
“After he died,” Theresa whispered, “I panicked.”
“So you forged my signature.”
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
Rachel sat down hard.
Even though we already knew, hearing our mother say it changed the air.
“I told myself I was protecting what remained.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Just yes.
I almost wished she would fight.
Anger would have been easier.
Rachel asked, “Why Logan?”
“Because Montgomery Coastal’s Newport project created an opportunity to refinance and replace what was missing.”
“So my marriage was a financial strategy.”
“No.”
Theresa’s answer came quickly.
“I wanted you to marry him because I thought he was good for you.”
Logan had not been good enough to stop Rachel cheating, but that was another matter.
Theresa continued.
“When I learned his company was expanding near Newport, I saw a way to correct what I had done.”
“By committing another fraud?” I asked.
Her mouth tightened.
“I told myself no one would lose anything.”
I almost laughed.
“That's what people say when they decide other people’s things belong to them.”
Mom lowered her head.
Then Rachel asked the question I had been afraid to ask.
“Why did you hate Valerie so much?”
Theresa looked genuinely shocked.
“I never hated her.”
“You humiliated her constantly.”
Mom’s eyes moved toward me.
And when she spoke, her voice broke.
“Because every time I looked at Valerie, I saw the daughter who would have known I was wrong.”
I said nothing.
“And every time I looked at Rachel, I saw the daughter who still needed me.”
Rachel stepped back as though struck.
Theresa began crying.
“I chose you because Valerie could survive me.”
That sentence broke something in all three of us.
Then Mom reached for Dad’s watch.
I pulled it away.
“No.”
She nodded.
“I understand.”
She stood.
But before leaving, she turned to me.
“There is one more thing.”
I almost couldn't bear it.
“What?”
“Your father did sign a transfer before he died.”
Rachel looked at her sharply.
“To whom?”
Theresa's eyes stayed on me.
“Not Rachel.”
My chest tightened.
“He gave control of Newport to you, Valerie.”
And suddenly the question was no longer whether my mother had taken half a house.
May you like
It was why she had spent twelve years hiding the fact that Dad had trusted me with all of it.
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