protect you.”
“No.
You did it because I finally stopped obeying you.”
Richard lifted his bag.
“A judge will decide that.”
Mira’s phone rang.
She read the message and turned the screen toward me.
An emergency order had frozen the trust and the money from my house sale until a capacity hearing could be held.
Richard opened the door.
Two days later, Richard appeared on the solicitor’s video screen with my daughters, Laura and Susan, and my younger son, Michael.
Laura would not look directly at me.
“Mom, Richard says Arthur targeted you.”
“Richard also told Eleanor I wanted nothing to do with her.”
Susan leaned toward her camera.
“Who is Eleanor?”
“Your sister.”
All three faces went still.
Richard cut in.
“Half-sister.
A stranger Dad kept secret.”
Eleanor sat beside me.
“I’m not asking any of you for money.”
“This isn’t about you,” Richard said.
“It became about me
