Chapter 10 - THE UNRAVELING
"Mom?" Brenda asked, taking a half-step forward in her chair. "Mom, what is it?"
Evelyn didn't answer. She lowered the paper toward the table, her hands trembling so severely that the thick bond paper rattled loudly against the china plate.
She tried to use her left hand to steady her right wrist, but it only made the uncontrollable shaking more obvious to everyone in the room.
Brenda reached across the corner of the table. "Let me see that—"
"Don't!" Evelyn whispered violently, slamming her palm down over the document to hide it.
It was a voice nobody in that house had ever heard before. Evelyn didn't yell; she sounded small, terrified, and cornered.
She turned her head slowly, looking up at her husband. "Where... where did you get this?"
"From our mailbox," Arthur replied, his tone chillingly calm. "Signed for it myself when the mail carrier came up the drive on the twentieth. The return receipt had a green tracking card attached."
Evelyn stared at him, her chest heaving beneath her silk blouse.
Then, very slowly, as if against her own will, she turned her head and looked directly across the dining room at me.
For the first time in the four years I had been part of her family, Evelyn Vance had absolutely nothing to say. Her mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
Daniel finally pushed his chair back with a loud screech against the hardwood floor.
"Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Daniel demanded, his voice cracking with rising panic. "Mom, what is that paper?"
Arthur didn't look at his son. Instead, he reached slowly across the white tablecloth, slid the second document out from the brown folder, and turned it around so it faced Daniel and Brenda.
Evelyn’s hand darted out like a snake to cover the bottom half of the sheet.
"Don't touch it, Evelyn," Arthur said. He didn't raise his voice, but the absolute authority in it made Evelyn’s hand freeze mid-air.
"Don't cover that," Arthur repeated quietly.
May you like
He placed two calloused fingers on the top edge of the document, anchoring it to the table.
"Daniel," Arthur said, pointing a finger toward the bold signature line at the bottom of the state compliance revoking affidavit. "I think you need to see whose name is on this. And more importantly... whose handwriting is underneath it."
