Chapter 12 - Tabitha’s First InterviewTabitha agreed to speak through attorneys.
No confession.
A proffer.
She wanted to explain.
Thaddeus did not attend.
Maya did.
She returned looking exhausted.
“How bad?”
Thaddeus asked.
“Complicated.”
“That means bad.”
“Usually.”
Tabitha admitted Magnolia Ridge needed money.
Admitted she believed Walter had promised long-term family support.
Admitted using trust funds.
She claimed Thaddeus had given broad verbal authorization.
Denied forging signatures.
Then Maya showed her Caroline’s video.
Tabitha stopped talking for eleven minutes.
“What did she say?”
Thaddeus asked.
“Eventually?”
“Yes.”
“She said Caroline set her up.”
Thaddeus almost laughed.
“By recording her forgery?”
“Basically.”
Tabitha argued Caroline manipulated the situation because she wanted to remove her from the family.
Maya asked:
“Did you sign Caroline’s name?”
Tabitha initially refused.
Then:
“I recreated a signature she had already approved on earlier drafts.”
Thaddeus stared.
“That is a confession.”
“Not in her wording.”
“It is in mine.”
Maya nodded.
Tabitha still claimed the substance reflected “family intent.”
She admitted the notary arrangement.
Admitted modifying the appraisal.
Admitted loans.
But kept returning to one defense:
She intended repayment.
“She thinks repayment erases authorization.”
Thaddeus said.
“Yes.”
“What about Grayson’s account?”
“She called it temporary.”
“Of course.”
“What about age forty?”
Tabitha’s response:
Grayson would be too young at twenty-five to manage serious wealth.
She believed extended family management protected him.
“Did she explain why she should be the one paid to protect him?”
Maya smiled grimly.
“No satisfying answer.”
Then the bathroom incident.
Tabitha became emotional.
She admitted losing control.
Admitted humiliating Grayson.
Denied intending serious injury.
Said Grayson repeated Caroline’s language.
“What language?”
Thaddeus asked.
Maya opened notes.
You don’t own us.
Thaddeus went still.
Grayson had said that?
Apparently.
He heard Caroline once say it years ago.
Tabitha asked where he learned it.
He said:
“Mom.”
That triggered her.
Maya continued:
“Tabitha said hearing Caroline’s words from him made her feel like Caroline was still controlling the family from the grave.”
Thaddeus closed his eyes.
There.
Grayson became Caroline in her mind.
A target for resentment he did not understand.
Then the line from the video.
Who really signed the papers.
Tabitha admitted she was referring to herself.
No mystery anymore.
She had taunted an eight-year-old with a fraud.
Why?
Anger.
Arrogance.
The belief that Grayson could not understand.
That mistake broke everything.
Then Maya said:
“She asked something about you.”
“What?”
“Whether you hate her.”
Thaddeus stared.
“What did you say?”
“That wasn’t mine to answer.”
Good.
That evening Thaddeus called Tabitha through counsel-approved communication.
One conversation.
No Grayson.
Tabitha answered quietly.
“Thad.”
He had not heard her call him that since the investigation began.
“Why?”
She exhaled.
“That is a very large question.”
“Start with Grayson.”
Silence.
“I lost control.”
“Why him?”
“He sounded like Caroline.”
“He is eight.”
“I know.”
“You called him a bastard.”
Tabitha began crying.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because…”
She struggled.
“Because sometimes I looked at him and saw her winning.”
Thaddeus felt sick.
“Winning what?”
“You.”
The answer came instantly.
Thaddeus went still.
Tabitha continued:
“Dad.”
“The house.”
“The family.”
“She came in and suddenly everything I had spent twenty years holding together became something she could audit.”
“You mean question.”
“Yes.”
“She made me feel like an intruder.”
Thaddeus answered:
“You were moving money.”
“I was trying to save Magnolia Ridge.”
“With Grayson’s money.”
“I was going to repay it!”
“Stop saying that.”
His voice rose for the first time.
Tabitha went quiet.
Thaddeus continued:
“You keep talking about the ending you intended as if it gave you permission to write everyone else’s middle.”
Silence.
Then Tabitha whispered:
“You sound like Caroline.”
“Good.”
That hurt her.
Thaddeus heard it.
Then:
“I don’t hate you.”
Tabitha began to cry harder.
“Don’t thank me.”
She stopped.
“I love you.”
“I also don’t trust you.”
Silence.
“And you will never control Grayson’s money again.”
Tabitha whispered:
“I know.”
“Or live in this house.”
A pause.
“I know.”
“For now, you will not contact him.”
Longer pause.
Then:
“Okay.”
That was the first boundary Tabitha accepted without arguing.
May you like
It came three decades too late.
But it came.
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