Chapter 4 - The Family Calls for Mercy
By Monday morning, word of Teresa’s arrest and Mason’s indictment had spread across the entire extended family in Tennessee.
My phone rang nonstop.
Aunt Betsy called twelve times before I finally answered on speakerphone, with Nathan recording the line.
“Connor!” Betsy sobbed dramatically into the receiver. “How could you do this to your own mother? She is sitting in a cold county jail cell! She has high blood pressure! You need to drop these charges immediately and tell the district attorney it was a family misunderstanding!”
“Did you enjoy the brisket at my son’s birthday party, Aunt Betsy?” I asked calmly.
Betsy stopped crying for a second. “What?”
“The brisket, the imported cheeses, the high-end bourbon you were drinking while my sick son lay burning with a fever in the other room. Did you enjoy it?”
“Connor, we didn't know the baby was sick—”
“You laughed when Amy was scrubbing pans on her knees,” I said, cutting her off. “You told everyone she had to earn her keep.”
“I was joking!”
“Well, here is no joke,” I said. “The credit card Teresa used to buy your weekend trip to Gatlinburg was opened in my name without my knowledge. My attorney is submitting those transaction records to the prosecutor this afternoon. If you were a recipient of stolen funds, I suggest you get a defense lawyer.”
Betsy choked on her breath and hung up.
Next came my uncle David, Teresa’s older brother.
He came to the hospital lobby trying to play the wise mediator.
“Connor, son,” David said, offering a hand I refused to shake. “Family is messy. People make mistakes when money gets tight. But Teresa is your mother. If she goes to prison at her age, she’ll die in there. Is that the kind of guilt you want to carry?”
“My son almost suffered brain damage because she locked up his mother’s car keys,” I replied, staring him down. “Where was your family loyalty when Amy was starving in that kitchen?”
David looked at the floor. “We didn't see that part.”
“You saw it,” I said. “You just didn't care because you were getting free drinks.”
I pulled out a copy of the restraining order Nathan had secured that morning.
May you like
“This order covers you, Betsy, Mason, and every relative who set foot in my home on Friday. If any of you comes within five hundred feet of my wife, my son, or my property, you will join Teresa in jail within thirty minutes.”
David swallowed hard, tucked the paper into his coat pocket, and walked out of the hospital without another word.
