Chapter 7 - The Video Shirley Left Behind
Then Patrice picked up the flash drive.
Brenda’s voice cut across the room. “No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She forced a cough. “I mean, we don’t need theatrics. We have documents.”
Patrice held the flash drive between two fingers. “Mrs. Whitmore specifically requested this be played after the will.”
Gregory brought in a laptop and connected it to the room’s screen.
For a moment, there was only black.
Then Grandma Shirley appeared.
She was sitting at her kitchen table in a pale blue cardigan, her white hair pinned back, her hands folded beside her tomato bowl.
Alive.
The sight of her knocked the breath out of me.
Emily started crying immediately. Harold bowed his head.
Grandma looked into the camera.
“If you are all watching this,” she said, “then I have gone on ahead, and Brenda has probably told you there was no will.”
No one moved.
Brenda’s face emptied.
Grandma continued.
“I know my daughter. I love her. But love does not require me to pretend I don’t see what greed has done to her.”
Brenda whispered, “Mom…”
On the screen, Grandma’s eyes were sharp.
“Nora did not ask me for this house. Nora did not ask me for money. Nora brought groceries in snowstorms and pretended she was just stopping by. She paid bills I was too embarrassed to admit I couldn’t manage after my household account started disappearing.”
I looked down, tears falling onto my hands.
Grandma lifted the ceramic bowl slightly on the screen.
“This bowl belonged to my mother. If it is broken by the time you watch this, I suppose that will tell you plenty about how fast people started selling what was never theirs to sell.”
A sound broke out of me before I could stop it.
The shard in my pocket felt suddenly warm.
Grandma set the bowl down.
“Brenda, I know about the withdrawals. I know about the developer who came to my porch while I was still alive. I know about the preliminary sale agreement.”
Uncle Harold’s head snapped up.
Emily turned to Brenda. “What developer?”
Brenda’s lips parted, but no words came.
Grandma’s voice softened, and somehow that hurt worse.
“I did not leave that house to Nora because she was my favorite. I left it to her because she understood what the house was for.”
She leaned closer to the camera.
“It was never meant to make one person rich. It was meant to keep people from being alone.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
May you like
Then Harold stood slowly and looked at his sister.
“Brenda,” he said, voice shaking, “what did you sign?”
