Chapter 7 - Two Deeds
Alicia instructed them not to touch anything.
Marcus almost laughed.
“How exactly do we touch a PDF?”
“You’d be surprised what people destroy when they panic.”
Her tone told them she had seen worse.
By late afternoon, Marcus had forwarded every message Lorraine had sent him.
Tasha exported her text history.
Alicia arranged an in-person consultation for the following morning.
That should have ended the day.
Instead, Jayden came downstairs carrying an old tablet.
“Mom?”
Tasha closed her laptop.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He looked at Marcus.
“You still here?”
Marcus smiled slightly.
“Apparently.”
Jayden stood awkwardly.
“I heard you talking about Great-Grandma.”
Tasha sighed.
“We’re handling something.”
“I know.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
Jayden looked at her.
Adults said that when children absolutely needed to worry.
He knew it.
“So Grandma Lorraine might not own the house?”
Tasha hesitated.
“We don’t know yet.”
“Does that mean we have to move?”
“No.”
Marcus answered too quickly.
Tasha looked at him.
He corrected himself.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure nobody makes any sudden decisions.”
Jayden nodded.
Then held out the tablet.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Videos.”
Tasha stared.
The tablet had belonged to Lillian.
After she died, Tasha had stored it in a closet.
Jayden had eventually used it for games until the battery stopped holding a charge.
“I was looking for old pictures.”
He opened the gallery.
There were hundreds.
Birthdays.
Cookouts.
Christmas mornings.
Lillian holding baby Eli.
Then Jayden played a video.
The image shook before settling on Lillian sitting at the kitchen table.
She looked thin.
Older than Tasha remembered.
But unmistakably alert.
Someone behind the camera laughed.
Tasha recognized her own voice.
“Grandma, why are you recording everything?”
Lillian smiled.
“Because you people forget.”
Tasha covered her mouth.
She had recorded it.
Seven years earlier.
Marcus watched quietly.
In the video, papers were spread across the table.
Lillian tapped one.
“This is the insurance.”
Another.
“This is the tax information.”
Then she looked directly at the camera.
“The house is yours after I’m gone.”
Tasha’s chest tightened.
Video-Tasha laughed.
“Grandma, stop talking like that.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Lillian’s expression sharpened.
“Your mother is going to tell you she knows what’s best.”
Marcus and Tasha looked at each other.
The recording continued.
“She always thinks control is the same thing as protection.”
Lillian leaned toward the camera.
“It isn’t.”
Then the video ended.
Jayden whispered, “There’s another one.”
He played it.
This was filmed at the rehabilitation center.
Lillian lay in bed.
Lorraine stood near the window.
Another man was visible only from the shoulder down.
The camera seemed accidental, pointed low.
Tasha recognized her grandmother’s voice.
“I said no.”
Lorraine replied, “Mama, you don’t understand what could happen if Tasha loses the place.”
“She won’t.”
“She doesn’t manage money.”
“Tasha is not stupid.”
“I didn’t say stupid.”
“You say everything without saying it.”
A man’s voice interrupted.
“Mrs. Brooks, if you’re uncomfortable, we don’t have to continue.”
The video shifted.
For less than a second, his face appeared.
Then Lorraine noticed the tablet.
“Tasha, are you recording?”
The screen went black.
Marcus paused it.
“Who is that man?”
“I don’t know.”
Jayden swiped through the files.
“There’s no more.”
Tasha looked at the date.
Her body went cold.
“Marcus.”
“What?”
“This was the same day as the deed.”
Marcus checked.
She was right.
The video had been recorded at 2:17 p.m.
The deed claimed Lillian signed before Curtis Vale at 11:30 that morning.
Tasha replayed the male voice.
If you’re uncomfortable, we don’t have to continue.
Marcus leaned closer.
“Could that be Curtis?”
“I don’t know.”
Jayden watched them.
“Is that bad?”
Tasha immediately softened.
“It’s information.”
“That means bad.”
“It means adults need to figure something out.”
Jayden nodded slowly.
Then Marcus asked, “Why were you at the rehab center that day?”
Tasha searched her memory.
“I brought Grandma clean clothes.”
“Did you see paperwork?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did Lorraine?”
“Yes.”
“She was there when I arrived.”
“With that man?”
“I guess.”
Marcus leaned back.
Then something clicked.
“You said the deed claims it was signed at eleven-thirty.”
“Yes.”
“Was Lillian alone then?”
Tasha tried to remember.
Her aunt Rochelle had visited in the morning.
Or maybe that was another day.
“I don’t know.”
Jayden suddenly spoke.
“Great-Grandma had a calendar.”
Tasha looked at him.
“What?”
“In her room.”
“How do you know?”
“There are pictures.”
He opened the gallery.
They scrolled.
One photo showed Jayden, age five, beside Lillian’s rehab bed.
On the wall was a whiteboard calendar listing therapy sessions and visitors.
Marcus zoomed in.
The date of the deed was visible.
10:30 — Physical Therapy.
11:15 — Speech Therapy.
Tasha stared.
The deed claimed Lillian had signed before a notary at 11:30.
The rehabilitation schedule placed her in therapy.
Not proof.
Appointments could move.
But it was another thread.
Marcus looked at Jayden.
“Where did you learn to look at details like that?”
Jayden shrugged.
“Y’all argue about details all the time.”
Tasha closed her eyes.
That hurt.
Jayden handed her the tablet.
“Can I go upstairs?”
“Yes.”
At the staircase he stopped.
“Mom?”
“What?”
“I don’t care about Jordans.”
Tasha looked at him.
“I know.”
“I just don’t want Maya and Eli thinking I’m mad at them.”
Her eyes filled.
“They don’t.”
“They do.”
He went upstairs.
Marcus stayed silent until the bedroom door closed.
Then he said, “We have to fix what we did to him.”
Tasha nodded.
Not the six hundred.
Not only that.
The accounting.
The lines.
The way every dollar had taught Jayden to calculate how much space he was allowed to take inside his own family.
Tasha looked back at the video.
Lillian’s face was frozen on the screen.
Control is not protection.
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The words were aimed at Lorraine.
But they had found more than one target.
