PART 12 – The Two Hundred and Ninety Thousand Dollars Could No Longer Be Dismissed as None of My Business

After the blue tin was examined, I returned to the question that had bothered me since February.

The money from the house.

Two hundred and ninety thousand dollars.

That was what Tyler and Hannah had paid.

Karen had never given me that number.

She had never sent the closing settlement statement.

She had simply told me not to worry.

I had accepted that answer for too long.

Now I wanted the financial records examined.

I spoke with Mr. Fenwick about the sale.

He explained that the trust documents needed to be compared with the property transaction.

He also wanted the records connected to the proceeds.

I told him I had no idea where the money had gone.

Karen had said it was needed for Mom's care.

That was all I knew.

I had never received a breakdown.

I had never seen a statement showing the amount deposited or the expenses paid.

I didn't even know whether the full amount had gone into an account belonging to Mom.

That thought bothered me.

If the money was genuinely intended for her care, there should be records.

I wasn't asking for anything unreasonable.

I wanted to know what had happened to my mother's property and the money from its sale.

Mr. Fenwick agreed that those details mattered.

He also reminded me not to make accusations before the information had been reviewed.

I understood.

Still, I found myself becoming angry.

Not because I had already proved what happened.

Because I had spent months asking questions and receiving almost nothing in return.

I thought about Karen telling me she had everything handled.

I thought about the settlement statement she promised to forward.

I thought about Mom's letter.

The words on that page had changed how I understood those conversations.

I called Mom that evening.

She was having a clearer day.

We talked for a while.

I asked whether she was comfortable at the care home.

She said she was doing all right.

I asked whether she needed anything.

She said she had what she needed.

I wanted to tell her about the tin.

I wanted to tell her that I had found it.

But I didn't know whether she was ready to discuss it.

So I told her I had been thinking about her.

She said she knew.

Then she asked about Emily.

I smiled.

Even with everything happening, Mom still wanted to know about her granddaughter.

After the call, I looked at the photograph of my parents again.

I wondered what my father would have thought about the situation.

I wondered whether he had known Mom would eventually use that hiding place.

There was no way for me to know.

I put the photograph back.

The following morning, I wrote down the amount Tyler had confirmed.

$290,000.

I circled it.

Then I wrote the date of the February 3rd letter beneath it.

I didn't want to lose track of the two details.

One was the amount paid by the buyers.

The other was the date Mom had recorded her objections.

Together, they raised questions that needed answers.

I had no intention of allowing another promise from Karen to replace those answers.

For the first time, I was prepared to ask for every relevant record.

Not as a distant daughter who was trying to help.

As a daughter who had finally discovered that her mother's written instructions had been waiting for someone to take them seriously.

Click here to continue reading: PART 13: I Finally Called Karen With Questions She Could No Longer Answer by Telling Me Everything Was Under Control