PART 9
Loretta was released on bond.
She was ordered to stay away from us.
No calls.
No messages.
No third-party contact.
For three weeks, she obeyed.
Then relatives started calling.
First my aunt Denise.
“She’s your mother.”
I hung up.
Then a cousin.
“She made mistakes.”
I blocked him.
Then one of the women from the dinner party.
“Families should handle things privately.”
I asked one question.
“Did you see my five-year-old washing your dishes?”
Silence.
Then she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Did you stop it?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me how families should handle anything.”
I hung up.
The most painful call came from my older brother, Terrence.
He lived in Virginia.
Loretta had always treated him differently.
He moved out at eighteen.
Rarely visited.
For years, I thought he was selfish.
When I told him what happened, he went silent.
Then he said.
“So she finally did it to you.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“She finally made you see her.”
I sat down.
Terrence told me things I had never known.
When we were children, Loretta controlled his money.
She opened credit cards in his name.
She read his mail.
She took his college refund checks.
When he confronted her, she told relatives he was addicted to drugs.
He wasn’t.
Then she threatened to call the police and accuse him of stealing from her.
So Terrence left.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
I froze.
“When?”
“Your sophomore year of college.”
I remembered the conversation.
Terrence had called me.
He said Mom was dangerous with money.
I told him he was bitter.
I told him she had sacrificed everything for us.
I told him to stop blaming her for his own problems.
The same script.
The same defenses.
Loretta had trained me well.
Terrence’s voice softened.
“She made you the good son.”
“I was the bad one.”
“As long as you believed that, she never had to worry about us comparing stories.”
I covered my eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
He sighed.
“You didn’t know.”
“I could have.”
“Maybe.”
“But now you do.”
Terrence flew to Charlotte the following week.
It was the first time we had spent more than a day together in twelve years.
He sat with Danielle.
He apologized for staying distant.
Then he showed Detective Bell old financial records.
Credit cards opened under his name.
Transfers.
A forged signature.
Loretta’s pattern went back decades.
The case became much bigger.
