The following morning, Ben noticed the same folder lying on the passenger seat of Mark’s car.
There was only one thing he had been able to read.
My mother’s home address.
My heart began pounding.
Mom’s house was the most valuable thing she owned.
My parents had bought it more than thirty years earlier.
Mom had said a hundred times:
“I will never sell that house.”
I looked at Ben.
“Why didn’t you tell me right away?”
His expression changed.
“Because you told me to stop following Uncle Mark.”
Those words hurt.
I was the one who had made him afraid to speak.
“So that’s why you’ve been sleeping out here?”
Ben nodded.
“If I stayed by the door, he couldn’t go inside without waking me up.”
I pulled my son into my arms.
Then I went into my mother’s bedroom.
She was sleeping peacefully.
At first glance, everything looked normal.
Until I noticed the small drawer beside her bed was partly open.
I pulled it out.
Inside was an empty folder.
I recognized it immediately.
That was where my mother kept copies of the documents for her house.
The next morning, I waited until she was fully awake.
Then I sat beside her.
“Mom, has Mark asked you to sign anything lately?”
She stared at me for a long moment.
“I think they were hospital papers.”
“Did you read them?”
Mom went silent.
“No.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“Why not?”
She touched her forehead.
“I was so tired. He told me they were just routine forms.”
Then suddenly, Mom looked at me.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“He asked me something about the house once.”
“What did he ask?”
“He wanted to know who should make decisions for me if there ever came a day when I couldn’t handle my own affairs.”
I didn’t waste another minute.
I called our family attorney.
Two hours later, we were sitting inside his office.
He checked his computer for documents that had recently been filed under my mother’s name.
At first, he said nothing.
Then he removed his glasses.
“Ellen, have you recently given anyone power of attorney?”
My mother stared at him in shock.
“No.”
The attorney turned a document toward us.
My mother’s signature was on it.
And the person being granted authority was Mark.
The document gave him the ability to act on my mother’s behalf in certain financial matters.
But then the attorney placed a second document on the desk.
“This is more concerning.”
It involved management of my mother’s house and some of her financial assets.
Mom went pale.
“I never read this.”
The attorney answered calmly:
“If you did not understand what you were signing, we need to act immediately.”
