Chapter 4

In the end, Uncle Michael shooed Mom and me out of the living room with a nasty scowl. "Get out, Monica, and take your daughter with you! I don't want to see either one of you! As for the house, just you wait!"

After we left, Mom didn't say a word. She walked all the way to the bus stop before suddenly crouching down, covering her face as she cried.

"I'm the reason Mom died… I was so useless… I didn't even dare to check on her! She suffered so much, but I was clueless the whole time…"

I crouched down and hugged her. Several buses came and went. Eventually, we were the only two people at the bus stop.

That afternoon, I went back to Grandma's house alone—not to confront Uncle Michael again, but to gather Grandma's belongings.

No one was home when I arrived. Uncle Michael and his family had gone out, and the door wasn't locked.

Grandma's room was tiny. There was an old wooden bed, a closet, and a desk. On the desk sat her reading glasses and several books.

I found an old leather suitcase under the bed, so I pulled it out and opened it. Inside it were the things Grandma had collected over the course of her life. There were a few old photos, including Grandpa's military portrait from when he was young, a portrait of Mom as a little girl, and an old, yellowing passbook from the bank.

I flipped it open. The last withdrawal entry was from three months ago, for 50 thousand dollars. The remark showed that it had been withdrawn by someone named Michael Shaw.

Uncle Michael had taken 50 thousand dollars from Grandma's bank account.

I searched through the bottom of the suitcase again and found an envelope with a handwritten document inside. The crooked, uneven writing belonged to Grandma.

"When I die, Monica should get half of the house. Monica gets the emerald bracelet, too. Michael and his family took my bank card and my passbook. He took 50 thousand dollars from my account. When I asked to get them back, he refused. He said that if I didn't give it to them, he'd tell Randy not to take care of me.

"Fiona won't give me my medicine. She said I'd only be wasting money if I took them. I wanted to go live with Monica instead, but Michael said that if I leave, he would take full ownership of the house. I don't have much time left. I'm writing this down because I'm afraid I'll forget. Signed, Annie Lewis."

The date was two months ago. Based on the shaky handwriting, Grandma's hand trembled a lot when she wrote this. Some of the letters blurred into each other. But she'd written it down anyway.

She was afraid she would forget—afraid she would die before she ever got the chance to tell anyone, so she wrote everything down.

I took a photo of the paper before carefully returning it to the envelope and slipping it into my pocket.

Then I picked up Grandma's prayer beads. She'd constantly held them in her hands during the last few months of her life. All the beads looked like they'd been polished to a shine from the constant handling.

I held the beads tightly and closed my eyes. The voice appeared in my head again.

"When Monica was little, she loved eating the beef pot pies I made the most. I always wanted to make some for her whenever she came over, but Fiona refused to let me get beef. She said it was a waste of money.

"I secretly stashed 60 dollars under my pillow so that I could make some pies for Monica the next time she visited. But Fiona found my money and took it away. I don't even have the money to make some pies for my daughter…"

My tears fell onto the prayer beads. I wondered to myself, "Just how much suffering did you have to go through, Grandma?"

I dried my tears and tucked the prayer beads into my pocket, beside the envelope.

When I walked out of Grandma's room, I passed through the living room and saw Aunt Fiona's handbag on the coffee table. She'd used it for years. The black leather surface was worn and frayed.

After hesitating for a second, I reached out and touched it.

A voice rang in my head—Aunt Fiona's sharp, cruel voice.

"The old hag is finally dead! There's still about ten grand in her pension account. That's enough for Randy to buy the wedding rings. As for the 50 thousand dollars from her bank account, Michael said he's going to buy me more gold bracelets.

"If we can get our hands on the house, we can sell it off for at least 600 thousand dollars. That'll be enough money to cover the wedding expenses and pay for Randy's marital home, along with any renovations he might need to do.

"Monica's a spineless pushover anyway. We just need to scare her a bit, and she'll be putty in our hands. But that daughter of hers is such a troublemaker. I must find a way to deal with her."

I pulled my hand back before curling it into a fist.

Aunt Fiona wanted to "deal" with me, huh? Two could play at that game, and we'd see who got the last laugh.