one hand resting on her stomach.
Russell stepped toward her.
‘Celia, what are you doing?’
She didn’t move.
‘I’m introducing myself to your wife.
Properly this time.’
One of Russell’s cousins looked from Celia’s stomach to mine.
Nobody needed an explanation.
Russell reached for my elbow.
‘Marianne, let’s go inside.’
I pulled away.
‘No.
I’d like to hear what everyone has to say.’
Frank placed two documents on the picnic table.
One was his wife’s death certificate.
The other was the disputed financial guarantee.
‘Explain how Eleanor signed this six months after she was buried,’ he demanded.
Russell stared at the paper.
‘I don’t know anything about that.’
‘Your name appears in the loan records,’ Frank answered.
‘That doesn’t mean I submitted it.’
‘Reasonable point,’ Rebecca said, stepping forward.
‘That’s why the lender is investigating who submitted and approved the documents.’
Russell turned toward her.
‘Who are you?’
‘Marianne’s attorney.’
The expression on his face was almost worth the six weeks of pretending.
Patricia sat down abruptly.
Celia spoke next.
‘You told me Marianne was your ex-wife.
You told me she was trying to ruin your life.
You told me we were buying a home together.’
Russell lowered his voice.
‘Celia, please.
We can discuss this later.’
‘You had nearly two years to tell me the truth.’
He looked toward his mother for help.
Patricia suddenly found her voice.
‘All of this started because Celia got pregnant.
Russell was confused.
He was trying to do the right thing.’
Celia stared at her.
‘You helped decorate my baby’s nursery.’
Patricia opened her mouth, then closed it.
‘You told me Marianne was making your son miserable,’ Celia continued.
‘And you told me I was the daughter-in-law you always wanted.’
Several relatives stepped away from the table.
Russell’s brother, Andrew, spoke quietly.
‘Mom, is that true?’
Patricia did not answer.
Then Rebecca laid another document on the table.
‘Marianne also disputes this power of attorney, Patricia.
It names you as her representative in a proposed transaction involving her property.’
Patricia’s face drained of color.
‘Russell handled that.’
Russell turned toward her.
‘Mom, stop talking.’
The silence that followed was enormous.
I looked at both of them.
‘You tried to borrow three hundred and ten thousand dollars against my father’s building.’
Russell’s jaw tightened.
‘We needed money.’
‘For what?’
He didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said something I will never forget.
‘I was going to pay it back.’
I stared at him.
‘With what money, Russell? You were already taking money out of our account to support another household.’
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘How was it, then?’
He looked around at his relatives.
‘I made mistakes.’
‘Mistakes?’ I repeated.
‘A mistake is forgetting our anniversary.
You built a second family, lied to both women, and submitted paperwork involving property you didn’t own.’
Patricia began crying.
She claimed she had only been trying to help Russell through financial difficulties.
She insisted she believed the paperwork was temporary and that Russell had promised to explain everything to me afterward.
Rebecca calmly reminded everyone that the documents were disputed and that responsibility would be determined through investigation and legal proceedings.
Frank collected his wife’s death certificate.
He looked at Russell with an expression of absolute disgust.
‘My wife was a good woman,’ he said.
‘She deserved to
