Chapter 4 - THE SON WHO OWNED NOTHING
Kevin arrived at the Montgomery County Probate Court wearing a gray suit and the expression of an exhausted caregiver.
Brenda walked beside him in a dark red dress, holding his arm. She had removed her wedding-ring-shaped cigarette stain with concealer, but the smoke remained in her hair.
Several relatives attended.
So did two of Thomas’s longtime tenants, his former accountant, Paula Jenkins, Claire, and the police detective handling the assault case.
Kevin looked surprised to see them.
His attorney opened by describing Thomas as a vulnerable widower whose health had deteriorated after Joyce’s death.
“Mr. Kevin Foster and his wife reorganized their lives to provide daily care,” the attorney said. “Unfortunately, Mr. Foster recently came under the influence of his estranged granddaughter and several financial professionals.”
Claire sat perfectly still.
Thomas could feel her anger from across the aisle.
The attorney continued.
“Within months, valuable property was transferred into a trust controlled by this granddaughter.”
The magistrate looked at Marcus.
“Does Mr. Thomas Foster dispute that?”
Marcus stood.
“He disputes nearly every misleading word surrounding it.”
Kevin testified first.
He said Thomas forgot appointments, misplaced money, and became aggressive when challenged. He claimed the kitchen incident began after Thomas accused Brenda of trying to poison him with cigarette smoke.
“My father swung a cooking spoon at me,” Kevin said. “I raised my hand to protect myself. He lost his balance.”
Brenda covered her mouth and looked down.
Kevin’s attorney asked, “Why did you file for guardianship?”
“Because I love my father. I don’t want strangers taking what he spent his life building.”
“Do you expect to benefit financially?”
Kevin hesitated only slightly.
“That isn’t my concern.”
Marcus stood for cross-examination.
“Mr. Foster, whose apartment were you living in?”
“It was our family home.”
“Whose name is on the deed?”
Kevin shifted. “My father’s.”
“How much rent did you pay?”
“We provided care instead.”
“How much did you contribute toward property taxes?”
“My father handled those.”
“Utilities?”
“He preferred to pay them.”
“Groceries?”
“This isn’t relevant.”
“It is relevant because you described yourself as your father’s financial support.”
Kevin looked toward Thomas.
Marcus placed several statements on the evidence screen.
“Is it true your father deposited four thousand dollars into your account eight months ago?”
“It was a gift.”
“And six thousand dollars three months before that?”
“He wanted to help us.”
“Did he also pay the remaining balance on your car?”
Brenda’s head turned toward Kevin.
He had apparently not told her where that money came from.
“Families help each other,” Kevin said.
“Your father helped you repeatedly. Can you identify one significant bill of his that you paid?”
Kevin said nothing.
Marcus changed the image.
A photograph from the kitchen camera appeared, showing Kevin’s hand against Thomas’s face.
Brenda gasped.
Kevin’s attorney stood. “The criminal matter has not been resolved.”
“We are not asking the court to determine guilt,” Marcus said. “We are challenging his claim that Thomas attacked first.”
The magistrate allowed the footage.
No one spoke while it played.
The slap echoed through the courtroom speakers.
Thomas watched Linda lower her eyes.
Brenda’s voice followed.
“Go to the cemetery already, old man.”
Then Kevin knocked down Thomas’s hand as he reached for the inhaler.
When the video ended, the magistrate turned toward Kevin.
“You described that as self-defense?”
Kevin looked at his attorney.
“The camera doesn’t show everything.”
“It shows enough to contradict your testimony.”
Brenda was called next.
She insisted Thomas had often exaggerated his breathing problems. Marcus handed her a copy of the hospital report documenting the severe asthma attack.
“You heard him collapse?”
“We heard something fall.”
“Did you check on him?”
“The door was closed.”
“Did you knock?”
Brenda’s lips tightened.
“No.”
“Did you call his name?”
“No.”
“Did you call 911?”
“We didn’t know it was an emergency.”
Marcus replayed her recorded statement.
“Leave him. He always does this for attention.”
Brenda stared straight ahead.
“What did you mean by ‘this’?”
“I don’t remember.”
Thomas testified last.
Kevin’s attorney asked him the date, the governor’s name, his doctors’ names, and the balance of several accounts. Thomas answered almost everything correctly. When he forgot the exact amount of a property-tax payment, the attorney smiled.
“Would you agree your memory is not perfect?”
Thomas looked at the magistrate.
“I’m sixty-eight. I forgot a tax payment by three hundred dollars. My son forgot he hit me after a camera recorded it.”
A quiet sound moved through the courtroom.
The attorney changed direction.
“Why did you conceal your wealth from your son?”
“I didn’t conceal my daily finances. I chose not to discuss every asset I owned.”
“You allowed him to believe you had limited resources.”
“Kevin never asked what I had. He only asked what I could give him.”
Kevin’s face reddened.
“Did your granddaughter persuade you to remove him from your estate?”
“No.”
“Then why was he removed?”
Thomas turned toward his son.
“Because my wife told me what he did before she died.”
Kevin went still.
Marcus submitted Joyce’s letter and the audio recording she had made years earlier.
Kevin’s younger voice filled the courtroom.
“Sign the apartment over now. Dad won’t manage it without you.”
Joyce answered, weak but unmistakably firm.
“Your father is not incompetent.”
“He will be eventually.”
“And that excites you?”
“I’m being realistic.”
The recording ended.
Claire began crying silently.
Thomas kept his eyes on Kevin.
“Your mother knew you were waiting for us to become weak.”
Kevin leaned toward his attorney. “That recording is private.”
Thomas continued.
“She also knew you kept Claire’s letters from us. She made me promise to protect the child you abandoned.”
“She isn’t a child.”
“She was nineteen when you took her college money.”
Kevin stood.
“I paid it back.”
Claire rose from her seat.
“No, Grandpa did.”
Brenda stared at her husband.
“What college money?”
Kevin looked around the courtroom and realized, too late, that every lie he had told was colliding in the same room.
“This family would have fallen apart without me,” he said.
Thomas’s voice remained quiet.
“No, Kevin. We kept breaking ourselves to keep you comfortable.”
The guardianship petition was denied.
The magistrate found no evidence that Thomas lacked capacity. She also ordered Kevin to have no access to Thomas’s financial records or property while the protection order and criminal case remained pending.
Outside the courtroom, Brenda cornered Kevin beside the elevators.
“You said the apartment was practically ours.”
“It would have been.”
“What about the commercial buildings?”
Kevin looked at Thomas.
“How many are there?”
Thomas did not answer.
Brenda’s face lost color as Marcus handed her a formal notice.
“What is this?”
“Notice that your permission to occupy Mr. Foster’s apartment has been revoked. A lawful eviction action has been filed.”
“You can’t throw us out.”
Thomas met her eyes.
“You told me to lock myself in my little room.”
May you like
He glanced toward Kevin.
“Now you can both find a room of your own.”
