Chapter 25
That has to be a glitch. Stephanie sat at her kitchen table and sipped her coffee as she refreshed the page on her computer. After a few moments, when she saw the same number come up as her available balance, she clicked on the transactions tab so she could figure out why there were thousands more dollars in her bank account than there should be. The only thing she could think of was that the payment to Brookside hadn’t gone through. But, it was set up on auto-pay and since she had the money to pay it she had no idea why that would’ve happened.
As she waited for the new screen to load, which could take a minute since her Wi-Fi ran as slow as a turtle on sedatives, she stretched her hands over her head and rolled her neck trying to get the kinks out. She’d slept on the loveseat while her sister had taken the couch the night before and her mother had the bed.
In all fairness, she’d offered her mom her room once she’d heard Simone had planned on crashing there that night too. She was doing her best to limit the amount of interaction the two of them had and she’d wanted a chance to speak to her sister privately. Simone reacted well to Stephanie’s admission that she hadn’t invited their mom to come stay with them. She didn’t get mad or upset. She’d just said she wondered why their mom was back then.
It was a good question. Stephanie was wondering the same thing.
The screen populated and she scanned down the list of deductions and deposits. Sure enough, the payment to Brookside hadn’t been taken out. Well, actually it had but then the amount was credited back to her account.
“What the…”
“Good morning, Stephiebug!” Her mother sauntered down the hall, wearing Stephanie’s robe. “Oooh, is there coffee?”
The last thing she wanted to do was deal with her mother right now. She needed to get on the phone with Brookside and find out what was going on. It had taken months to get her brother in there. Under their care he was doing better than he ever had. She wasn’t about to let a banking error cause him to lose his place.
“Yes.” Stephanie motioned to the counter where the coffee pot sat. If her mother wanted coffee she could make it herself. This wasn’t a B&B.
Grabbing her phone she scrolled through her contacts to find the number for Brookside. Lifting her phone to her ear she waited for reception to pick up.
“Where is my Simmygirl?”
“She had an early class.” Stephanie had let her sister take her car so she wouldn’t be late, because honestly, she’d just been so happy that she was going at all. It seemed like Simone was taking school seriously and Stephanie wanted to do everything she could to support her.
“Oh good!” Her mother sipped her coffee as she took a seat at the table across from Stephanie. “I wanted to steal a moment alone with you. You know just the adults.”
When she was a kid, Stephanie used to love it when her mom would say that. But now, looking back, she realized that it was just her way of giving Stephanie way more responsibility than she should’ve ever had.
“It’s a good morning at Brookside, how can I help you?” The receptionist answered.
“Hi, yes, can you transfer me to your billing department?” Stephanie asked, turning her attention back to the computer screen in case they needed her account number.
Not respecting the fact that Stephanie was on the phone, her mother leaned forward. “I wanted to talk to you about the will.”
“The what?” Stephanie asked.
“Account services, this is Arlette.” A female voice came over the phone.
“The will,” her mother repeated. “Your father’s will.”
Okay, well, that explained a lot.
“I’m sorry, Arlette, I’m going to need to call you back.” Stephanie’s hand was shaking as she disconnected the call and set her phone down. She tried to keep her tone even as she lifted her gaze to her mother. “What about the will?”
“Well, I just thought with the hearing coming up this week—”
“The hearing?”
“Yes, to determine which will is valid.”
“Which will?” Stephanie really had no idea what her mother was talking about.
“Your father’s attorney seems to think that the will drafted after our divorce is valid but there’s no way it should be. He wrote it right after he got out of the looney bin.”
“The looney bin?” Stephanie was aware that she kept repeating what her mother was saying, but it seemed she needed to say it out loud to process the information.
“Yeah, that’s where he went when he left. Well, first he went to the hospital because he tried to kill himself but then he went to the looney bin.”