Chapter 12 - The Attachment
Vanessa led me into the den and opened her phone. She had saved a screenshot, taken while Grant was working at the dining table. It showed a file name and the top of a document: Evelyn_Carter_Authorization_Final.pdf.
“Why did you take this?” I asked.
“Because we were fighting. He'd called you unreliable and said he could fix the reservation without you. I wanted proof he wasn't telling me everything.”
“Did you know it was fake?”
“I knew you hadn't agreed.”
I let that sit between us. She had watched him act without my consent and had done nothing to stop him.
“Can you send that to the attorney?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Not just to me. Preserve the original. Don't change anything.”
She nodded. “I should've said something.”
“Yes,” I said. “You should have.”
Mom came in carrying tea and immediately tried to soften the moment. “Vanessa made one mistake. Evelyn, don't punish her forever.”
“One?” I asked.
“Please,” Mom said. “She's already hurting.”
“I know she is. That doesn't erase what happened.”
Mom set down the cups too hard. “You want everyone to suffer because your feelings were hurt.”
“No. I want everyone to stop using my feelings as the excuse for their choices.”
Dad, seated by the window, said quietly, “She's right.”
Mom stared at him. He almost never challenged her. “You don't understand what she's doing to this family.”
“I understand,” he said, “that I signed a loan I didn't read, and nobody is coming to save me with a blank check.”
He looked at me. “I was counting on you, Evie. Not because you offered. Because you always came through.”
There it was—the truth nobody had wanted to say aloud.
Vanessa handed her phone to Dad. He studied the screenshot. His brows drew together.
“What's this company name?” he asked.
I leaned in. Below the document preview was a sharing address ending in a domain none of us recognized.
May you like
Vanessa swallowed. “Grant told me it was a document service.”
Dad reached for the loan papers. “That same name is printed at the bottom of my agreement.”
