Chapter 7 - The Cruise Fraud
“Why is Royal Caribbean calling you?” I asked.
Mom shoved the phone into her purse. “Probably a mistake.”
My own phone rang seconds later.
A representative said someone had tried to reverse my cancellation using passenger birth dates, reservation details, and partial payment information.
“I didn’t authorize that,” I said.
Mom looked away.
The reservation was frozen permanently.
After the call, I stared at her.
“You tried to restore the cruise behind my back.”
“It was our trip.”
“It was my reservation.”
“You gave it to us.”
“And I withdrew it before you took it.”
“You are cruel.”
“No,” I said. “I finally stopped being useful.”
She left.
Two days later, Aunt Linda—Mom’s younger sister—called me.
“I heard about Evelyn’s trust.”
“You knew?”
“I knew she created equal trusts for both girls. I didn’t know Tom took from yours.”
Then Linda told me something that made my hands shake.
“Your grandmother wrote you a letter before she died.”
“I never got one.”
“I was afraid of that.”
Grandma had given it to Mom to deliver after the funeral.
Linda remembered a cedar chest in my parents’ basement where Grandma’s papers were stored.
That same night Dad texted me:
Stop digging into things you don’t understand.
I answered:
I understand more every day.
He replied one minute later.
There is no letter.
Which told me there absolutely was.
The next afternoon Linda used her old key to enter my parents’ basement.
She found the cedar chest.
No letter.
But she found something almost as powerful.
May you like
A page in Grandma’s handwriting.
And the first sentence made me cry.
