There was bruising along her upper back.
The emergency physician said the pattern was consistent with being struck by a hard cylindrical object.
Not with falling.
Not with an elderly woman “losing her balance.”
Being struck.
I sat beside her bed until sunrise.
At 6:13 a.m., she woke.
Her face tightened when she tried to move.
“Water?”
She nodded.
I held the straw.
Afterward, she closed her eyes.
“I should have told you months ago.”
“Told me what?”
Her eyes opened again.
“I think Ryan has been stealing from me.”
For a moment, I genuinely didn’t understand the sentence.
“Stealing what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom.”
“I didn’t know there was anything to steal.”
She swallowed.
“Three months ago I received a letter from a company called Continental Transfer Services. I almost threw it away. It said they were updating information regarding an ownership interest that belonged to your father.”
