Chapter 16 - The Smoking Gun
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It took three days for Robert to get access to the physical evidence logs and review the older ledgers Evelyn had kept hoarded in her office safe.
When he finally called me back, his voice was heavy.
"Jason. Are you sitting down?"
"Tell me," I demanded, standing in my kitchen, gripping the edge of the marble counter.
"You were right," Robert said with a sigh. "On October 16th, seven years ago, Evelyn made a cash deposit of four thousand dollars into a private offshore investment account. An account she opened in Greg's name."
The room spun.
She took the money meant to save her daughter-in-law's life and invested it for her golden child.
"There's more," Robert continued gently. "I found a secondary folder in the evidence box. It looks like Evelyn intercepted the insurance cancellation notices that were mailed to your house. She forged your signature on a confirmation of cancellation letter."
I closed my eyes. The puzzle pieces locked together with devastating clarity.
Sarah hadn't died just because the cancer was aggressive. She died because Evelyn systematically ensured her treatment was cut off, hid the evidence, and then used the resulting bankruptcy to convince me to leave town so she could take control of my daughter and my paycheck.
It was a masterclass in sociopathic destruction.
"Can we charge her for this?" I asked, my voice cracking. "Can we charge her with murder?"
"Murder? No. The legal causation is too difficult to prove in court," Robert explained apologetically. "But we can charge her with criminal negligence resulting in death, mail fraud, and grand theft. With these charges added to the embezzlement and child abuse, Jason... she is never seeing the outside of a prison cell. She will die behind bars."
"Good," I said coldly. "File the charges."
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I hung up the phone and looked out the window into the backyard. Maya was sitting on the patio, reading a book in the Texas sun, completely unaware of the monstrous depths her grandmother had sunk to.
I vowed in that moment that she would never know. I wouldn't let Evelyn take one more piece of my daughter's heart.
