“You knew this would happen.”
I looked at her.
“I knew the Navy would verify my service.”
“You knew your sister wouldn’t qualify.”
“I knew there were questions about her work history.”
My mother gave a bitter laugh.
“And you said nothing.”
I stared at her.
“Mom, you took me to court.”
“You could have warned us.”
“I did.”
She frowned.
“When?”
“When I told you I was serving in the Navy. When I told you the records you were using were incomplete. When I asked you to stop telling people I was lying.”
She looked away.
“I didn’t know about that envelope.”
“You weren’t entitled to know everything about my assignments.”
“I’m your mother.”
I felt the familiar pressure of those words.
For an instant, I was eighteen again.
Standing in the kitchen.
Trying to explain why I wanted to leave.
Trying to make her understand that my choices did not have to be attacks against her.
Then I looked at the empty witness stand.
I remembered what Captain Vale had said.
Your mother is trying to make this trial about who loved your father more.
I straightened.
“Yes,” I said. “You’re my mother.”
Her expression softened.
Then I continued.
“And you told people I was a fraud. You told them I abandoned Dad. You tried to take away my inheritance because I wouldn’t give you information I was not allowed to share.”
Her face tightened.
“I was trying to protect your sister.”
“From what?”
She said nothing.
“From having to support herself?”
“That’s cruel.”
“No, Mom. What you did in here was cruel.”
Liora stepped closer.
“Evelyn, please.”
I looked at her.
She was crying again.
I waited.
My sister wiped her cheeks.
“I didn’t think it would go like this.”
My mother immediately turned toward her.
“Liora, don’t.”
But my sister kept looking at me.
“I didn’t know there was an official certificate.”
“You knew I joined the Navy.”
