Chapter 23: The Mortgage

The hearing on Monday lasted forty minutes.

It was held in a small courtroom with a flag, a clerk and a magistrate.

The magistrate read my mother's file with growing distaste.

My mother sat at one table with her lawyer.

My father and I sat at the other, with Summit's attorney between us.

She did not look at me.

She wore the black coat again, and I noticed she had stopped dyeing her hair.

The magistrate asked three questions.

The first was who had opened the sole account that received my money.

"I did," my mother said.

The second was whether my husband knew of it.

"He was told," she said.

"Did he agree?"

"He didn't object."

My father spoke from his chair.

"I was told it was a loss. I have the date."

The magistrate nodded and made a note.

The third question was why a woman with two hundred and twelve thousand dollars in her private account had been billing her son for a mortgage.

My mother's lawyer rose.

"Your honor, my client wished to keep the funds liquid in case of medical need."

"For a son who was on a registry list," said the magistrate, "and received a transplant on Saturday night at no cost to her."

The lawyer sat back down.

The ruling took a few minutes.

The sixty-one thousand dollars was returned to me, with interest, within ten days.

My father's pension, one hundred forty thousand dollars, was to be restored to his name alone.

The civil complaint demanding two hundred thousand dollars was dismissed with prejudice, and my mother was to pay Summit's counsel's fees.

The magistrate set down his pen.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Gave My Wedding to My Brother, Now They Need Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.