Chapter 8 - The Papers After Surgery
Margaret got the hospital records the next morning.
The three signatures were real.
Mine.
But the packet Laura had given me was not.
One page was a durable financial power of attorney naming Laura as my agent.
My signature sat at the bottom.
The notary section was completed by a woman named Sandra Bell.
I had never met Sandra Bell.
“That’s impossible,” I said.
Margaret shook her head.
“No. It’s fraudulent. But not impossible.”
We searched county records.
The document had been filed six months earlier.
Laura had legal-looking authority over my finances, at least on paper.
That explained the lender.
It also explained why David had been so confident.
I called Laura.
She answered on the first ring.
“Mom, please don’t involve police.”
“You filed a power of attorney I never knowingly signed.”
“You signed it.”
“I signed papers while medicated after surgery.”
“You knew I was helping you.”
“I did not authorize you to take control of my property.”
She started crying.
“David said it was just in case something happened.”
“Then why did you hide it?”
“Because you would overreact.”
I laughed.
It sounded ugly even to me.
“Laura, your husband has a notebook planning what happens when I’m ‘not around much longer.’”
She went quiet.
“What notebook?”
“You really don’t know?”
“No.”
For the first time, I believed her.
Then she said, “Mom, I need to tell you something.”
Margaret leaned closer.
Laura whispered, “David has been opening your mail.”
“What?”
“He had your mail forwarded for two weeks in September. He said there was something with the mineral rights he needed to see.”
My chest tightened.
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know.”
“Laura.”
“I swear.”
I heard a door slam in the background.
Laura stopped breathing.
“Is he there?” I asked.
“No.”
A man’s voice said, “Who are you talking to?”
Laura whispered, “Mom, don’t call me again.”
Then the line went dead.
Margaret was already dialing 911 when my own front-door camera sent an alert.
Movement detected.
I opened the feed.
David was standing on my porch in San Antonio.
He looked straight into the camera.
Then he raised a set of keys I had never given him.
May you like
And unlocked my front door.
