In Sickness and in Lies novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: Meet Me. Not for Him.

I did not sleep, and at seven the retired trust officer rang my mother's doorbell.

She was seventy, with a cane, a cardigan, and a heavy briefcase.

Bruce had called her before dawn.

He stood at the kitchen counter in yesterday's shirt, pouring coffee, and he did not look at me for very long.

"Sit," the trust officer said. "Both of you. Don't hover, Doctor."

"I'm not hovering."

"You are standing very close to the coffee."

He sat.

She spread my sixteen pages and the guardianship petition across the table and put on a pair of half glasses.

"Four things," she said. "Number one. The petition is a bluff."

"It says I'm mentally unfit."

"It says that because of one photograph and one dinner. Your husband wants a judge to freeze everything you own until he's finished spending it. He does not expect to win. He expects you to be scared."

"I'm scared."

"Of course you are. That's the cost of the bluff." She tapped the next page. "Number two. The trust still holds two hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars. He didn't finish."

"He spent three million."

"He put most of it into the company and the rest into jewelry, a house and his own bills. The balance is yours, and as of today he cannot touch it."

"How?"

She slid a single sheet in front of me.

It was short, one page, with a signature line.

← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend