Chapter 2 - The Account I Wasn’t Supposed to Check
Mom did not leave immediately.
She stood beside the front door demanding to know what I had told Lucas.
I ignored her.
Finn was still crying, but there was no blood and no visible serious injury. He could move both arms and legs normally.
I called his pediatrician.
Mom laughed under her breath.
“You’re calling a doctor because a toddler fell?”
“He didn’t fall.”
She stopped smiling.
“You kicked him.”
“I moved my foot.”
“You kicked him.”
“Because you let him crawl all over me while I’m trying to have one hour of my own life.”
That sentence clarified more than any apology could have.
She did not believe she had lost control.
She believed Finn had inconvenienced her.
Lucas advised me to have someone else come to the house before Mom left.
My neighbor, Denise, arrived ten minutes later.
Mom hated that.
Cruelty behaved differently once another adult could see it.
She picked up her sports bag.
“You’ll call me tomorrow when you realize you can’t manage two babies from the floor.”
I looked at her.
“No, I won’t.”
She left.
Denise helped me back into the wheelchair.
Then she sat with both twins while I opened the banking app on my phone.
For the first time since the accident, I checked every account myself.
Adam and I had maintained a household checking account, savings, his retirement accounts, a brokerage account, and a separate emergency fund.
After the crash, I had given Mom limited financial power of attorney while I was hospitalized.
Lucas had drafted it.
The authority allowed her to pay ordinary household expenses and deal with insurers temporarily.
It did not give her ownership of anything.
I opened the household account.
The balance was almost eighteen thousand dollars lower than I expected.
My mouth went dry.
There were payments I recognized.
Mortgage.
Utilities.
Groceries.
Physical therapy copays.
Then there were transfers.
$4,800.
$6,000.
$3,250.
All going to an account labeled MWW SERVICES.
I had never heard of it.
I called Lucas back.
“Does my power of attorney let Mom transfer money to herself?”
“Not for personal use.”
“What if she calls it reimbursement?”
“For legitimate documented expenses, potentially. Why?”
I read him the transfers.
He went quiet.
“Tessa, don’t accuse her yet.”
“Why?”
“Because first we find out what MWW Services is.”
I searched the Illinois business database.
The company had been formed six weeks after my accident.
Its registered manager was Marjorie W. Ward.
My mother.
I stared at the screen.
Mom had created a company while I was in rehabilitation.
Then she had begun sending my money into it.
That was when Lucas asked a question I had not considered.
“Have you checked the life-insurance account?”
I frowned.
“What life-insurance account?”
May you like
He went silent.
And I knew before he answered that my mother had hidden something much larger than grocery reimbursements.
