Chapter 6 - The Invitation Trap
The reason my mother didn't want Eli and me at the Christmas Eve party wasn't just because we were inconvenient witnesses.
It was because December 26th—two days away—was the scheduled appointment with the mobile notary at the lodge.
My mother had planned a grand family brunch under the guise of “holiday asset consolidation and estate planning.” She had intended to corral Evelyn into signing the final transfer documents while eighty festive guests were still buzzing off champagne and goodwill, assuming that in the chaos of the holidays, nobody would look too closely at the signature lines.
That was why my invitation had been quietly revoked. That was why my name had been deleted from the final guest list while seventy strangers were invited to fill the rooms so there would be plenty of witnesses to Grandma’s alleged “confusion” if she raised a fuss.
The thumbs-up emoji she had sent me when I texted her that we’d be arriving at 6:30 wasn't an acceptance. It was a countdown.
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She had assumed that when she slammed the door in our faces, we would get back in our car, drive three hours back down through the blizzard to Denver, and nurse our wounded pride in silence. She didn't account for the fact that Evelyn Brandt is not a woman who takes orders in her own house.
And she certainly didn't account for the fact that my grandmother had spent the last two weeks quietly matching every single lie with a digital receipt.
