Chapter 8 - The Doctor's Name
Dr. Keene listened to Sonia read the letter and interrupted before she reached the second paragraph.
"I didn't write that."
"Your signature is on it," she said.
"Then somebody copied it. Daniel has physical limitations. That does not mean he lacks the ability to understand contracts."
The doctor agreed to give a statement directly to investigators and to provide records through proper channels. He was furious about the misuse of medical information, but Sonia reminded us that anger was not evidence until it was documented.
"I want Celeste arrested," Mara said after the call.
"So do I," I admitted.
"Good. Then we're on the same page for once."
"Mara, if we let wanting revenge make our decisions, she gets another chance to call us reckless."
My daughter watched me for a moment. "That sounded like something Grandma Evelyn would say."
"She said it better."
We drove through Haven Street that evening. There were porch swings, gardens, and basketball hoops patched with tape. My mother had loved the place because everyone here had a story nobody rich wanted to hear.
June Bell stood on her porch wearing a yellow cardigan. She had lived in Number Fourteen since the year I was born.
"I heard they sold us," she said.
"They haven't," I told her. "And we're fighting the papers that say otherwise."
June reached into her mailbox and handed me a letter she'd received that morning. It thanked her for voting to surrender her lease protections in exchange for a relocation payment.
"I never voted," she said. "And they offered me less money than it would cost to move my furniture."
Sonia examined the attached ballot.
May you like
The handwriting was neat, the signature convincing, and the witness line carried a name that made Mara go pale.
MARA WARD.
