Chapter 5 - WHAT MY MOTHER WAS HIDING
Daniel waited until Vanessa fell asleep.
At 11:40 p.m., Paige opened her bedroom door and motioned him inside.
Her iPad sat on the desk.
Beside it was an external drive.
Daniel closed the door.
“How many?”
“Thirty-seven survived.”
“You downloaded forty-two.”
“Five were corrupted.”
“Which one did Grandma tell you not to show me?”
Paige looked at the floor.
“Watch the others first.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“Start with the one she doesn’t want me to see.”
Paige hugged herself.
“She wasn’t trying to lie to you.”
“Then show me.”
For a few seconds she didn’t move.
Then she opened a folder.
JULY.
A thumbnail showed the kitchen.
Eleanor stood near the sink.
Vanessa was beside the pantry.
Paige clicked.
The video had no sound for the first few seconds.
Then the kitchen microphone activated.
Vanessa stepped into frame holding Eleanor’s phone.
“You are not calling him.”
“Give that back.”
“He is trying to save his company.”
“I only want to ask if he’s all right.”
“You’ll distract him.”
“He’s my son.”
“And he’s my husband.”
Eleanor reached for the phone.
Vanessa pulled it away.
“You think because you gave birth to him you own him forever.”
“I don’t think that.”
“Yes, you do.”
Eleanor’s shoulders stiffened.
“I think he would want to know you’re taking money from my account.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Daniel leaned closer to the screen.
Paige whispered, “Keep watching.”
Vanessa set the phone on the counter.
“You offered to help.”
“I offered groceries.”
“You live here rent-free.”
“Daniel asked me to live here.”
“And Daniel isn’t here.”
Eleanor reached for her phone again.
Vanessa grabbed her wrist.
Hard.
Eleanor winced.
“Let go.”
“You want to call him? Fine. Tell him everything.”
“I will.”
“Tell him Paige can’t pay tuition without my help.”
Eleanor froze.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“Tell him I’m behind on the property taxes because his little company stopped paying him.”
“That isn’t what he told me.”
“He doesn’t tell you everything.”
Neither woman spoke for several seconds.
Then Eleanor said, “I’ll pay Paige’s tuition myself.”
Daniel turned toward Paige.
Her eyes were wet.
On screen, Vanessa laughed.
“With what? Your pension?”
“If I need to.”
“You’d do that?”
“Yes.”
“For her?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa released Eleanor’s wrist.
Her voice softened.
“That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“You think you’re protecting her.”
The video ended.
Daniel stared at the black screen.
“That’s the one?”
Paige nodded.
“Why didn’t Mom want me to see it?”
“Because she didn’t want you thinking I was the reason she stayed.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What do you mean, stayed?”
Paige sat on the edge of the bed.
“Grandma tried to leave in August.”
“Where?”
“She packed a bag.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Because Mom and I had a fight.”
Daniel waited.
Paige wiped her face.
“I’d found bills.”
“What bills?”
“Credit cards. A loan. Stuff Mom hid.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know. A lot.”
“What happened?”
“I told her I was going to call you.”
“And?”
“She took my car keys.”
“That car is in my name.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
Paige stared at him.
“She told me if I went behind her back, she’d stop paying tuition and tell you I dropped out.”
Daniel frowned.
“You didn’t drop out.”
“No.”
“Did she think I wouldn’t check?”
“She said you didn’t have time to check anything anymore.”
That landed harder than Daniel expected.
Because for a while, it had been true.
“Grandma heard us,” Paige continued. “She came downstairs. Mom told her if she left, I was on my own.”
Daniel slowly sat in the desk chair.
“So Mom stayed.”
Paige nodded.
“She thought if she was here, Mom would focus on her.”
The room became very quiet.
Daniel looked toward the wall separating Paige’s bedroom from the hallway.
His mother had spent months absorbing Vanessa’s anger because she believed it kept Paige safer.
Not physically safe, necessarily.
Financially.
Emotionally.
Connected to the only stable home she had known since middle school.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Paige’s answer came immediately.
“Because I was scared you’d leave her.”
Daniel blinked.
“Vanessa?”
“My mom.”
“You thought I’d leave because she was hurting Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“And that was bad?”
Paige looked furious now.
“You don’t understand what it’s like to know your mother is doing something terrible and still not want her life destroyed.”
Daniel leaned back.
Paige’s voice shook.
“My dad left. Her dad left. Everybody leaves her when she gets difficult.”
“Abusing an elderly woman is not being difficult.”
“I know that.”
“Then don’t shrink it.”
“I’m not.”
She stood.
“I saved the videos, didn’t I?”
Daniel said nothing.
Paige pressed both palms against her face.
“I hate what she did.”
Her voice broke.
“I still love her.”
Daniel looked down.
That was the first sentence anyone had said in two days that didn’t fit neatly into victim and villain.
He understood it.
That made it worse.
“Show me the financial stuff.”
Paige opened another folder.
Photographs.
Credit-card statements.
Past-due notices.
A personal loan.
A real-estate investment agreement.
Daniel recognized the name on the last document.
TROY KELLER.
Vanessa’s older brother.
“What is this?”
“Mom and Uncle Troy bought a condo in Oak Brook to renovate.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because she said you’d say no.”
Daniel studied the numbers.
Purchase price: $465,000.
Private financing.
Renovation budget: $110,000.
Projected sale: $720,000.
Paige swiped to another image.
A contractor lien.
Then another.
Foreclosure notice.
The project had collapsed.
“What did she lose?”
“At least a hundred and fifty thousand.”
“Where did she get that?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel did.
Or part of it.
Eleanor’s missing twenty-three thousand.
Credit cards.
Possibly joint savings.
Possibly more.
Paige scrolled to a screenshot of Vanessa’s text thread with Troy.
One message had been captured two weeks earlier.
TROY: Daniel finds out, we’re both screwed.
VANESSA: He won’t.
TROY: What if he refuses the new house?
VANESSA: He won’t once Eleanor is gone.
Daniel’s thumb stopped on the screen.
Paige whispered, “Read the next one.”
He did.
VANESSA: Once he puts the sale money into property with my name on it, he can’t just take it and leave.
Daniel stared at the text.
The abuse.
The false story about his company failing.
The push to move Eleanor out.
The house in Hinsdale.
None of it was random.
Vanessa wasn’t reacting to financial panic.
May you like
She was building toward something.
And his mother had been standing in the way.
