Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
My father attempted to clear his throat, struggling to piece together some semblance of authority. ""Hannah, be reasonable. What are you going to do? Sue your own parents? Put your father in a state penitentiary? If you file a criminal complaint against Harold Miller, he will turn around and implicate me immediately. I would lose my pension. Your mother and I would lose our house. Is that what you want? To leave your elderly parents homeless on the street?""
""You didn't care if I was homeless,"" I retorted, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes, hot and angry against my cheeks. ""Do you remember my senior year of nursing school? When my radiator blew up on Route 28 in the middle of a blizzard? I called you from a gas station payphone because my cell had died. I was freezing, crying, begging you for four hundred dollars to tow the car and replace the hose so I wouldn't miss my clinical exam. Do you remember what you told me, Dad?""
My father remained silent, his eyes fixed firmly on the grain of the table.
""You told me that adversity builds character,"" I said, my voice shaking with raw, unadulterated pain. ""You told me that you didn't have twenty dollars to spare, and that if I wanted to be an independent woman, I needed to learn how to solve my own problems. I walked four miles through snowdrifts to get to the hospital that night. My toes were blue. I caught pneumonia and spent four days in the observation unit. And the entire time, you had seven hundred thousand dollars of my money sitting in an account that you were feeding to Derek like candy!""
Derek shifted uncomfortably against the wall, crossing his arms and looking toward the ceiling. ""Look, Hannah, nobody wanted you to get sick. But you're being dramatic. You made it through, didn't you? You're a nurse! You make good money! You don't even have kids! What do you need a million dollars for anyway?""
Aunt Lorraine moved so fast Derek actually stumbled backward into the corner cabinet. She didn't strike him, but the sheer intensity of her presence drove him back against the wood. ""Shut your mouth, Derek. Do not say another syllable in this house. You have lived your entire miserable life off the labor of women—first your mother, then your sister. You have never built a single thing with your own hands that didn't rot from your sheer laziness.""
She turned back to my father. ""Here is what is going to happen, Richard. Because unlike you, I consulted with a real estate and trust attorney who doesn't play golf with crooked accountants. Last week, I filed a petition for an emergency audit of the Arthur Brooks Testamentary Trust in Allegheny County Probate Court.""
My father's head snapped up, his eyes wild with terror. ""You filed a petition? Without telling us?""
""The petition is already entered into the court docket,"" Aunt Lorraine said with cold satisfaction. ""Judge Henderson signed the order freezing all remaining accounts tied to Arthur’s estate, including the collateral liens on your personal home. The court has ordered a forensic accounting of every single dollar transferred between 2016 and today. The notary, Harold Miller, has already received a grand jury subpoena. He’s terrified, Richard. He’s seventy-two years old and he has no intention of going to federal prison for bank fraud just to protect your golf score.""
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My mother let out a high-pitched wail, burying her face into the cushions of the chair. ""You're destroying our family! Lorraine, she’s your sister! How could you do this to your own sister?""
""You destroyed this family the day you decided one child was a golden god and the other was an unpaid servant,"" Aunt Lorraine fired back. ""The forensic audit will show that Richard embezzled roughly one million fifty thousand dollars of Hannah's designated legacy. You have two choices tonight, Richard. And I suggest you listen very carefully, because if you make the wrong choice, the sheriff will be knocking on your door by Tuesday morning.""
