Chapter 6 - Wayne Finally Called MeThe next morning, Wayne called.
I had not heard his voice in six years, not since Mama told me he had moved away and asked me not to bring him up again.
His number was unfamiliar, but I recognized the voice before he finished saying my name.
“Linda.”
For one strange second, I was seventeen again.
I was sitting in Mama's kitchen, waiting for him to come home from work. He would enter carrying the smell of motor oil and tobacco, hang his jacket on the back of the chair, and ask whether I had finished my homework.
He had once taught me how to change a tire.
He had attended my high school graduation.
He had stood beside my hospital bed and told me everything would be fine.
Now his voice made my skin crawl.
“How did you get this number?” I asked.
“I have ways of finding people.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“Don't be dramatic. I heard you've been asking questions.”
“About my settlement?”
A pause.
“So you found the money.”
“And the documents.”
Another pause, longer this time.
“Your mother always had a talent for turning ordinary problems into tragedies.”
I gripped the phone.
“You took one hundred thousand dollars from my account.”
“I borrowed money that was available to the family.”
“It was my settlement.”
“You were seventeen. Your mother and I were responsible for your welfare.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I signed what needed to be signed.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
Wayne sighed as though I were a child refusing to understand a simple lesson.
“Linda, you have no idea how expensive it was to keep this family afloat. Your mother couldn't manage money. Russell needed a future. That business gave him one.”
“So you stole from me to buy him a future?”
“I made an investment.”
“You told me the money was gone.”
“Much of it was spent.”
“On what?”
Silence.
For the first time, Wayne sounded uncertain.
Then he said, “Your mother was supposed to explain all this to you.”
“She tried. You threatened her.”
“That is her version.”
“Is the letter your version too?”
He said nothing.
I could hear faint traffic in the background.
“Listen carefully,” he finally said. “There are things your mother never told you. She wasn't innocent in all this.”
My stomach tightened.
“What are you talking about?”
“She signed the papers.”
“Which papers?”
“The original documents. She knew the money was going into the business.”
“Then why did she say you stole it?”
“Because she changed her mind after the company became successful.”
I remembered Grace's explanation. Mama had signed a letter acknowledging the startup funds, but there was no evidence that she knowingly authorized the withdrawal of my settlement.
Wayne was twisting the facts.
“You're lying.”
“I'm trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From a fight you cannot win.”
I glanced at Mama's notebook on the table.
“Where is the ledger?”
The silence that followed told me more than his previous answers.
Wayne knew exactly what I meant.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“The original ledger from Parrish Development.”
“Your mother filled your head with nonsense.”
“Then it shouldn't bother you if I find it.”
His voice hardened.
“You will stay away from that warehouse.”
“Why?”
“Because the business is mine.”
“Russell owns it.”
“Russell owns what I allowed him to own.”
The words came too quickly.
He realized his mistake.
I heard him inhale.
“That isn't what I meant.”
“No,” I said. “I think it is.”
“You're making a serious mistake, Linda.”
“Then explain the truth and give me a reason to stop.”
He lowered his voice.
“Your mother took something from me before she died. Something that belonged to the family. If you bring the bank into this, you will lose the house, the money, and whatever remains of your relationship with Russell.”
“What did Mama take?”
“Something that was never yours to begin with.”
The call ended.
I stood motionless in the kitchen.
Wayne had threatened me. He had admitted the business belonged to him, despite the documents naming Russell as owner. He had claimed Mama took something before she died.
And he had said I would lose the house.
I looked at the old flour tin sitting beside the pantry.
Mama had hidden $18,940 there.
But according to Wayne, she had taken something else.
Something he wanted back badly enough to threaten his stepdaughter six years after leaving her mother.
I called Grace.
She answered almost immediately.
“He called me,” I said.
“I expected that.”
“He says Mama took something from him.”
Grace was silent for a moment.
Then she asked, “Did he say what it was?”
“No.”
“Linda, listen to me. Your mother once told me that Wayne had a second ledger, separate from the business books.”
“What did it record?”
“Payments he made to people who helped him transfer assets.”
My throat tightened.
“Who helped him?”
“Your mother never told me all the names.”
I looked toward the front window.
Across the street, the dark sedan had returned.
This time, the driver did not hide.
He stepped out and walked toward my house.
May you like
It was Russell.
And in his hand was a document bearing Wayne's signature.
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