My Sister Took My Hours And Sent A Final Offer

I called dispatch before June finished her toast.

"Where are my shifts?"

Len, the morning lead, lowered his voice.

"Celia took you out of the system. She said you'd requested leave."

"I didn't."

"Send that in writing. I can't put you back myself."

I wrote the message with June's spelling sheet under my elbow. Then I packed her school bag and drove her to class.

At the curb, she touched my wrist.

"Did I cost too much?"

I turned off the engine.

"Listen to me. Grown people are fighting about papers. You did nothing wrong."

"But the room money—"

"Is my job to figure out. Your job is to learn fractions and tell Miss Opal when her boats leak."

She smiled a little. I watched until she reached the school doors.

Lorna Bell's office was above a feed store. Her desk had a chipped corner and three neat piles of folders.

She read Mother's trust twice.

"I can't promise you a result," she said. "But I can tell you this deserves a case."

"I have $613 in checking."

She nodded toward the bank records.

"I can offer a written fee agreement that defers payment while we seek access to your assets. Read it. Ask about every line you don't understand."

I did. She waited.

Then we spread my Army papers across her desk.

My orders showed that I had been deployed that September. A travel history showed no trip home. My pay record listed overseas duty.

"These support what you're saying," Lorna told me. "We'll request official copies. We'll also ask for the notary's records."

She pointed to the supposed sale.

"Do you recognize this witness?"

The name was Dean Peller.

"Celia's bookkeeper."

Lorna wrote it down.

By afternoon, she had sent requests to preserve records and filed a case asking the court to protect the disputed property. She also asked for a quick hearing on temporary relief.

"The full case will take time," she said. "A judge may still be able to stop further transfers while we sort it out."

Outside her office, Ellis waited beside his truck.

He wore the same serious face he had worn when we lost a tool in the motor pool.

"I brought what I had," he said.

He handed Lorna a newsletter. On the front was a dated photo of our crew receiving new equipment overseas. I stood in the middle, holding a clipboard.

September ninth.

"The official records will matter more," he said. "But I remember that day. You argued with a supplier over six missing filters."

I laughed for the first time since the dinner.

"They were on the bill."

"That's why I remember."

He took me to lunch and bought an extra meal for June. When I tried to thank him, he said, "You can fix my shop fan someday. It sounds like a tractor."

That evening, a driver delivered a thick envelope to our apartment.

Celia offered me $25,000.

In return, I would confirm the old sale, drop any claim to Mother's trust, and agree to say nothing about the dispute.

There was a separate line saying I had left Bay Reed by choice.

I called Lorna.

"Don't sign it tonight," she said. "Bring it in."

"I wasn't going to."

I looked around our kitchen. June's medicine chart hung beside the calendar. A damp patch had spread above the window again. Twenty-five thousand dollars could have changed our month.

That was what Celia had counted on.

June came in holding a permission slip for a class picnic. The cost was $7. I signed it, put the money in an envelope, and tucked it into her bag. Then I placed Celia's offer in a different folder, where it could wait until morning.

The hospital social worker called the next day. Her name was Tessa Ward, and she had heard about the dinner from a staff member.

"Your care plans are still in place," she said. "And we found a family lodging program with a room available. The aid appeal can continue separately."

I sat down on the floor so June would not see me cry.

"How much is the room?"

"Covered. We'll work through the travel costs with you."

Two days later, Lorna called about our hearing date. She also had news from the notary, a woman named Bev Sutter.

"Did she remember me?" I asked.

"She remembered your sister. She asked for her own lawyer before answering anything else."

I closed my eyes.

Then Lorna said, "And Dean Peller just sent me a message. He wants to meet without Celia."