She looked at me, her eyes searching my face for answers I didn’t yet have. « I thought your sibling was helping, » she said softly, as if trying to reassure herself. « They’ve always been so good with these things. » I nodded, not wanting to alarm her, but the seed of doubt had been planted, and it was growing fast.
After leaving Mom’s place, I drove to a nearby park, needing space to think. I sat on a bench, watching people pass by, each absorbed in their own worlds. I pulled out my phone, scrolling through messages with my sibling, looking for clues I might have missed.
There was a text from a few months back: « Handled the bills. All good. » Simple, unassuming. But now, it felt like a piece of a larger puzzle. I needed to talk to them, to understand their side of the story.
That evening, I called them, the phone ringing longer than usual before they picked up. « Hey, » I started awkwardly, « I went through some of Mom’s financial stuff today. » There was a pause, a beat of silence before they replied casually, « Yeah? Everything okay? »
« I saw your signature on some authorizations, » I said, trying to keep my tone neutral. « I just wanted to know what’s been going on. »
Their response was smooth, practiced. « Oh, that’s just to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks. You know how it is. » But their words didn’t sit right with me. Something was off, and I needed to dig deeper.
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