The Story Continues After Part 2

Rosa opened a video file on her tablet. The footage showed

my mother standing beside the dining-room sideboard with an unfamiliar man in a pale blue shirt. It was late afternoon, according to the security timestamp.

Chloe hovered near the door, periodically glancing toward the kitchen. On the screen, Evelyn slid a cream-colored envelope across the polished wood.

“Everything is ready except the last signature,” she said. The man tapped the envelope.

“You told me she agreed.”

“She will,” Evelyn replied.

“She doesn’t understand these things.

Her husband does, and he trusts me.”

Then my mother took a pen and practiced writing a name on a sheet of scrap paper.

Mariana Vance.

I looked at Rosa.

“Who is that man?”

“His name is Warren Bell.