PART 3
The mediator picked it up.
Her eyes moved slowly down the columns.
Date.
Amount.
Purpose.
Recipient.
Method of payment.
And beside nearly every entry was Grandma’s handwriting.
Melinda — college tuition — $31,800.
Melinda — wedding expenses — $48,600.
Melinda — vehicle — $27,450.
Melinda — credit cards — $18,920.
Melinda — apartment deposit — $9,000.
Melinda — medical expenses — $12,400.
Melinda — debt settlement — $41,300.
The list continued.
The mediator’s expression changed.
“How did you obtain this?”
Laura answered calmly.
“From Ruth’s private records.”
Dad leaned forward.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“It proves she kept detailed records,” Laura replied.
“No,” Dad snapped. “It proves she gave Melinda money. It doesn’t prove Ruth didn’t intend to give her more.”
Laura nodded.
“That would be a reasonable argument if the document ended there.”
She turned another page.
At the bottom, Grandma had written a sentence.
Total assistance to Melinda: $350,214.73.
Underneath it:
I have fulfilled my obligation to both girls. What remains should go to Brianna because she has never asked me for anything.
Melinda’s face went pale.
I stared at the handwriting.
I had seen it thousands of times.
The neat, slightly slanted letters.
The way Grandma crossed her t’s.
The little dot she always put above the i.
There was no mistaking it.
Mom finally found her voice.
“She was old.”
Laura looked at her.
“Ruth was eighty-one when she died. She was also the owner of an auditing company for thirty-nine years.”
Mom’s lips tightened.
“She could have been confused.”
“That argument becomes difficult to sustain,” Laura said, “when we have three independent witnesses who discussed the ledger with Ruth while she was perfectly competent.”
Dad pushed his chair back.
“You’ve been talking to people behind our backs.”
I looked at him.
“No. Grandma talked to people before she died.”
He stared at me.
Laura opened another section of the folder.
“This is Dorothea Wells’s statement.”
She read only one sentence.
