Chapter 13 - PRUDENCE FINALLY ADMITTED WHY SHE HATED THE HOUSEPrudence asked to speak with Cedric.
Not through attorneys.
He refused.
Then she asked for a mediated meeting.
Cedric agreed only because investigators had already secured the relevant evidence.
Marissa sat beside him.
Prudence had a new attorney now.
She looked tired.
Older.
No pearl earrings.
No confidence.
For the first few minutes, nobody spoke.
Then Prudence said:
“I never hated Isaac.”
Cedric stared.
“You called him a bastard.”
“I was angry.”
“You pushed him.”
“I lost control.”
“You planned to send him across the country without telling me.”
Her face tightened.
“I thought it would be temporary.”
Cedric almost laughed.
“He’s eight.”
“I know.”
“You used him as leverage.”
“No.”
“It’s in writing.”
Prudence looked down.
Cedric continued.
“What did you expect to happen?”
She whispered:
“I needed time.”
“For the loan.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Prudence’s eyes filled.
“Because Brighton was going to ruin me.”
“You borrowed seven hundred thousand dollars.”
“I was desperate.”
“You pledged a house you don’t own.”
“Dad promised me.”
“No.”
Cedric placed Harold’s signed codicil on the table.
Prudence looked at it.
Her face changed.
“He signed that after Hannah poisoned him against me.”
Cedric shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Hannah didn’t make you take his money.”
Prudence looked furious.
“I paid most of it back.”
“After you got caught.”
Silence.
Cedric leaned closer.
“Tell me the truth. Why this house?”
Prudence laughed bitterly.
“Because it was supposed to be the one thing that proved I mattered.”
Cedric frowned.
Their childhood returned in fragments.
Cedric younger.
Prudence older by four years.
Harold praising Cedric’s grades.
Cedric joining the family business.
Prudence leaving after college.
Their father difficult.
Demanding.
Not emotionally generous.
Prudence continued.
“Dad helped you buy.”
“Hannah and I bought.”
“He gave you money.”
“Fifty thousand for renovations.”
“He never gave me fifty thousand.”
“He paid your divorce attorney.”
“After my husband left me with nothing.”
Cedric stared.
“You kept score.”
“Of course I did.”
The answer was immediate.
“Everything was Cedric.”
Her voice trembled.
“Cedric is responsible.”
“Cedric is stable.”
“Cedric gets the company clients.”
“Cedric has the wife Dad loves.”
“Hannah was the daughter he wished I had been.”
Cedric stared.
This wasn’t about law.
Or even money.
The house had become symbolic.
Cedric and Hannah built it.
Raised Isaac there.
Harold admired it.
Prudence saw every room as proof that Cedric had received the life she believed should have been hers.
“You resented Hannah.”
Prudence looked away.
“Yes.”
“Isaac too?”
“No.”
“Then why punish him?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because he reminded me of her.”
There it was.
Cedric felt sick.
“You looked at an eight-year-old and saw a dead woman you disliked.”
“I know how terrible that sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound terrible.”
Cedric’s voice broke.
“It is terrible.”
Prudence began crying.
“I didn’t start that way.”
Cedric believed that.
That almost made it worse.
At first she probably did help.
Cook.
Drive Isaac.
Manage the house.
Then resentment seeped into ordinary moments.
Isaac’s smile reminding her of Hannah.
His ownership future making her angry.
The trust turning a child into a financial obstacle.
“Did you ever love him?”
Prudence cried harder.
“Yes.”
Cedric sat back.
“Then why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
She wiped her face.
“Because I thought I could fix everything before anyone knew.”
“Your debt.”
“Yes.”
“Your claim.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I would bring Isaac back.”
Cedric stared.
“From Utah.”
“Yes.”
“After telling me what?”
“That he needed help.”
“And you thought he’d forgive you?”
Prudence closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Children forgive.
Cedric remembered the email.
“You believed Isaac’s love made him safe to hurt.”
Prudence looked up sharply.
“That’s not fair.”
“It’s exactly what you believed.”
Silence.
Cedric continued.
“You thought because he loves family, he’d eventually accept whatever adults did to him.”
Prudence’s face collapsed.
Cedric stood.
The meeting was over.
Then Prudence said:
“There’s something Nolan didn’t tell you.”
Cedric stopped.
He hated those words now.
“What?”
“The loan wasn’t only mine.”
His stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Prudence looked at her attorney.
He shook his head slightly.
She ignored him.
“Nolan borrowed too.”
“I know he had debt.”
“No.”
She stared at Cedric.
“He used your clients’ money.”
Cedric froze.
“What clients?”
“Your company’s retirement plan.”
Cedric stopped breathing.
Prudence continued.
“He moved funds through investments you approved.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You signed them.”
Cedric’s stomach dropped.
Again.
Signatures.
Trust.
Delegation.
“How much?”
Prudence whispered:
“More than two million.”
Cedric sat down.
If true, this was no longer only family fraud.
Nolan might have used Cedric’s business accounts to hide his losses.
And Cedric’s name might be attached to those approvals.
Prudence smiled sadly.
“You thought I was trying to steal your house.”
“You were.”
“Yes.”
Her expression hardened.
“But Nolan was trying to save himself from prison.”
Cedric stared.
“And if investigators keep pulling that thread…”
May you like
She paused.
“They’re going to find your signature on a lot more than my loan.”
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