The number stayed with me.
Three million dollars.
I heard it in my head while I checked on Victor and while I reviewed the notes I'd made about the house.
I thought about how little attention Victor paid to appearances.
I thought about how carefully he'd kept his finances private.
And I wondered how much Elaine had assumed about him simply because he didn't display his wealth.
Victor had never acted like a man who needed to prove anything.
That was one of the things I'd respected about him.
He'd been a Marine long before I met him.
He'd spent years learning to keep his feelings to himself and to judge people by what they did rather than what they said.
Even with cancer wearing him down, that part of him hadn't disappeared.
He was physically weak.
He wasn't confused about what had happened.
I returned to the living room and sat beside him.
“Can you tell me more about the trust?” I asked.
He looked at me for a moment.
“What do you need to know?”
“Only what you're comfortable telling me. The attorney can review the details with you.”
He nodded slowly.
“I've kept it separate for a reason.”
I waited.
“I didn't want people making decisions for me because they thought they knew what I had.”
That made sense.
I thought about Elaine's spending.
I thought about the cruise and the designer handbag.
I thought about the possibility that she had mistaken Victor's privacy for an absence of resources.
But I didn't know what she believed about the trust.
I didn't know whether Brady knew it existed.
I wasn't going to fill in those gaps with guesses.
“Does Brady know about it?” I asked.
Victor didn't answer immediately.
Then he shook his head.
“Not the way you know now.”
I looked at him.
He seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
I didn't press him for more than he wanted to share.
There would be an opportunity to review the trust documents with the attorney.
That was the right place to establish what the trust contained and what Victor had prepared.
I wanted to understand the situation.
I didn't want to turn his private finances into a subject for speculation.
“Whatever happens,” I told him, “you should be the one deciding what happens to your money.”
He looked at me.
“That's why I told you.”
I felt the weight of that statement.
He'd chosen to trust me with something he had kept private.
I didn't want to betray that confidence by rushing ahead or treating the money as though it belonged to me.
The trust wasn't a weapon for me to use against Brady.
It was Victor's property and his future.
If it helped protect him from people who had mistreated him, that would be because his rights were being respected, not because I had found a way to punish anyone.
I wanted him to understand that.
“I'll help you protect it,” I said. “But we'll let the attorney guide us.”
Victor nodded.
That settled the matter between us.
For the time being.
The medication remained a separate concern.
I thought about the bottle I'd set aside.
It had been labeled as morphine sulfate, but the appearance of the liquid had made me uneasy.
I couldn't identify it by sight.
I couldn't establish what had happened to the medication before I arrived.
And I couldn't assume Elaine had done something criminal simply because Victor had mentioned her spending.
Still, Victor's health depended on receiving appropriate treatment.
The bottle needed to be examined.
I made sure it remained preserved for professional analysis.
I also kept the circumstances of its discovery in my notes.
I didn't want to lose track of when and where I'd found it.
Every detail could matter later.
That evening, I looked over the plan for recording Brady and Elaine's return.
The camera would document the encounter.
It wouldn't tell me everything that had happened before I arrived.
It wouldn't establish what was inside the bottle.
It wouldn't explain the trust by itself.
But it could preserve what was said when they came home.
I wanted them to have the chance to speak.
I also wanted a record that couldn't be changed simply because the conversation became uncomfortable.
I knew Brady well enough to understand how quickly a difficult conversation could turn into an argument about tone.
He could focus on how something was said rather than what had happened.
I had done that myself in the past.
It was easier to argue about a reaction than to admit what had caused it.
I wasn't going to let that become the center of this.
The central issue was simple.
Victor had been left in a freezing house without adequate care.
I had found him in a dangerous condition.
The note showed that Brady and Elaine had gone away and expected me to take over.
Those facts were the starting point.
Everything else needed to be examined honestly.
Later, I brought Victor a fresh drink and checked that he could reach it.
He looked at the glass.
Then he looked at me.
“You always were observant.”
I gave a small, tired smile.
“I've had practice.”
He almost smiled back.
For a moment, the room felt less heavy.
Then he turned serious again.
“Jenna, I don't want you to think this is about getting even.”
I sat down.
“I don't.”
He watched me closely.
“I want them to answer for what they did.”
“I understand.”
“I don't want anyone deciding that because I'm sick, I don't count anymore.”
That sentence stayed with me.
It explained more than the money did.
Victor wasn't asking for pity.
He wasn't asking me to make him feel powerful.
He wanted his life and his decisions to be treated as though they still mattered.
They did.
I thought about how I'd found him.
The blanket had been too thin.
The room had been too cold.
The water and medication had been out of reach.
He'd been left to sit there until somebody happened to come home.
I looked at him now, and I understood that helping him meant more than keeping him warm.
It meant making sure his wishes were heard.
It meant protecting his privacy.
It meant allowing professionals to examine the evidence.
And it meant refusing to let his illness become an excuse for treating him like a burden.
“I won't forget that,” I told him.
He nodded.
I stayed beside him for a while longer.
Outside, the snow continued to fall.
Somewhere on the cruise, Brady and Elaine were enjoying the trip they'd planned.
I couldn't control what they thought about the future.
I could control what I did next.
I would protect Victor's interests.
I would preserve the evidence.
I would let the attorney advise him.
And when Brady and Elaine returned, I would make sure the facts were not hidden behind the familiar comfort of our family routines.
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: I Had Once Believed My Husband Would Never Leave His Father Behind, but the Handwritten Note Made That Belief Hard to Keep
I Thought I Was Coming Home for Thanksgiving, Until the Cold Inside That House Told Me Something Was Terribly Wrong
Part 6 of 20
