Chapter 3 - Why Helen Was in Hawthorne

The next morning, Tasha refused breakfast.

Her cellmate, Renee Jackson, watched her push the tray away.

“You gonna tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“You almost drowned Grandma Laundry.”

“I said no.”

Renee stopped.

Tasha sat on the lower bunk.

Her mother’s name had lived inside her like a locked room.

Denise never stopped insisting she had been framed.

Tasha believed her as a child.

Then doubted her as a teenager.

Then believed again after Denise died because guilt became easier than uncertainty.

Now Helen Ward had walked into prison wearing state gray and confirmed everything.

But Helen herself was an inmate.

That mattered.

Tasha wanted to know why.

She got the answer from prison gossip before lunch.

Helen Ward.

Sixty-eight.

Sentence: thirty months.

Convicted on charges involving financial fraud, obstruction, and falsified nonprofit records.

Victim losses: more than six hundred thousand dollars.

Tasha laughed bitterly.

“Of course.”

Same woman.

Same crimes.

But the dates were recent.

This was not Denise’s case.

Helen had been prosecuted over a newer nonprofit scandal involving Ward Community Services, a company run by her son Malcolm.

At noon, Tasha asked Officer Renee Lawson:

“Can I speak to Ward?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“You assaulted her yesterday.”

“I need five minutes.”

“That is precisely why you’re not getting five minutes.”

Tasha almost argued.

Then stopped.

For once, force did not open the door.

She returned to her unit.

Three hours later, she wrote Helen a note.

Not threatening.

One question.

Why are you finally telling the truth now?

Officer Lawson initially refused delivery.

Helen’s counselor approved it after reviewing the message.

Helen read it twice.

Then wrote back.

Because I pleaded guilty to protect my son, and three months later I discovered he had blamed everything on me anyway.

Tasha stared.

Another line:

I realized I had become Denise.

That made Tasha furious.

Helen did not get to compare herself with Denise.

Denise had been innocent.

Helen was not.

Tasha wrote:

You are not my mother.

Helen replied the next day:

No. She was braver.

Tasha kept that note.

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She did not know why.

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