Chapter 6 - ROBERT DIDN’T LET HIM BUY FORGIVENESS
Shawn offered to hire full-time private nurses.
Robert said no.
He offered to move both parents to Columbus.
Margaret said no.
He offered to buy a condominium near the hospital.
Robert became angry.
“Stop spending.”
Shawn stared at him.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Sit down.”
So he did.
Father and son sat in a rehabilitation lounge while snow began falling beyond the windows.
Robert’s hands looked smaller than Shawn remembered.
“You always fix things with money.”
“That seems rich coming from the man who accepted it.”
“We needed some of it.”
“Then what was I supposed to do?”
“Come home once.”
The sentence hurt because it was so modest.
Not every Christmas.
Not every month.
Once.
Shawn looked away.
“I thought you were proud I built something.”
“I am.”
“Then why does it sound like I abandoned you?”
Robert took his time.
“Because both things can be true.”
That became the emotional center of everything that followed.
Brenda’s abuse did not make Shawn a perfect son.
Shawn’s absence did not excuse Brenda.
Robert and Margaret had depended on the wrong child because the other child was easier to reach through a bank transfer than across a kitchen table.
Meanwhile, Brenda petitioned civil court for reimbursement.
She claimed $186,000 in unpaid caregiving services, home improvements, and management work.
Some expenses were legitimate.
She had paid property taxes one year.
Covered Margaret’s physical therapy before Shawn increased his transfers.
Kept the grocery store operating during Robert’s arthritis flare.
Miriam warned Shawn:
“Abuse does not mean every financial claim she makes is fictitious.”
He hated that.
Reality refused to organize itself into clean categories.
Then the forensic accountant found one payment from Brenda Miller Holdings that did not fit.
$22,500 to Helen Price.
The mobile notary on the disputed power of attorney.
The memo read:
consulting
May you like
Helen Price was not a consultant.
And she had notarized the document that supposedly gave Brenda control over almost everything.
