PART 2 – Mr. Fenwick Told Me My Mother Had Left Specific Instructions About My Sister and the House She Was Supposed to Protect

I needed to know what would have made him contact me.

That was the part I couldn't leave alone.

If my mother had deliberately limited what Mr. Fenwick could tell me, she must have had a reason for making exceptions.

I lifted my eyes from the tin.

“What would have changed her instructions?”

He sat back before answering.

The movement was small.

I noticed it anyway.

He didn't speak as though he was guessing about what my mother might have wanted.

He spoke as someone who knew what she had said.

“One of the situations she named involved your sister transferring the house without her permission.”

I went still.

There it was.

The house.

The sale.

My sister.

All in the same answer.

Until that moment, I had been trying to understand why I hadn't been contacted.

Now I was hearing that my mother had anticipated the possibility of her own daughter selling her property against her wishes.

I couldn't make that thought feel ordinary.

It wasn't a small disagreement between family members.

It wasn't a question of who should handle some paperwork.

It was the possibility that my mother could lose control over what happened to her own home.

And she had been concerned enough to give Mr. Fenwick instructions about it.

I kept my hands around the tin.

I could feel myself wanting to interrupt.

I wanted to ask what my sister had done.

I wanted to ask how long my mother had been worried.

But I was beginning to understand that there were things Mr. Fenwick needed me to hear in order.

I let him continue.

The room hadn't changed.

He was still sitting across from me.

The blue tin was still resting on my knees.

But the conversation had taken on a different meaning.

My mother's instructions were no longer an explanation for why I had been left alone.

They were evidence that she had been preparing for something she feared might happen.

And one of those fears involved my sister doing exactly what she had been entrusted not to do.

Click here to continue reading: PART 3: Before We Could Discuss the Sale, Mr. Fenwick Insisted I Understand What Mom Had Done While Dad Was Still Alive