PART 7
“Lennox has a pattern of this behavior. Before she married your son, she was engaged to two other men. Both relationships ended when the men discovered she’d been using their credit cards without permission. In one case, she ran up over $50,000 in debt before the man found out.”
My heart sank.
“Does Terrence know this?”
“I don’t think so. She’s very good at covering her tracks. But there’s more. The boutique she invested in—it doesn’t exist. My investigator couldn’t find any business license, any storefront, any evidence that this boutique is anything more than a way for her friend to get $300,000 for free.”
I felt sick.
“So the money is just gone.”
“It appears so. And, Bessie, there’s something else. Something worse.”
I braced myself.
“She’s been having an affair for at least six months, possibly longer. The man is married, wealthy, and she’s been using your son’s money to fund their relationship. The expensive jewelry, the spa trips, the car detailing—it was all part of maintaining her relationship with this other man.”
The room spun around me. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. My son, my decent, hard-working son, had been completely destroyed by a woman who was using him as an ATM while cheating on him with someone else.
“Does my son know about the affair?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so. But Bessie, the man she’s been seeing—he’s ending the relationship. My investigator spoke to his wife, who found out about the affair and gave him an ultimatum. That’s why Lennox is suddenly desperate for money and a place to stay. Her sugar daddy cut her off.”
Everything made sense now. The sudden urgency to sell the house, the reckless spending spree, the desperation when I refused to let them stay with me. Lennox wasn’t just irresponsible with money. She was a predator who had systematically destroyed my son’s life to fund her affair.
“What do we do with this information?” I asked.
“We use it. In the lawsuit, we can argue that the money was obtained through fraud and deception. We can also use it to ensure your son understands exactly who he married.”
That afternoon, the process server delivered the legal papers to the motel where Terrence and Lennox were staying. I knew because Terrence called me thirty minutes later, his voice shaking with rage.
“Mom, what the hell is this?”
“It’s a lawsuit, Terrence. I told you I was going to file it.”
“Sixty-seven thousand dollars? You’re suing us for sixty-seven thousand dollars?”
“That’s what you owe me. Plus interest, plus legal fees, plus damages.”
“We don’t have sixty-seven thousand dollars.”
“I know. That’s what happens when you steal from family to fund a lifestyle you can’t afford.”
“We didn’t steal from you.”
“Terrence, you sold a house that had a $40,000 lien on it without paying me back. In legal terms, that’s conversion of secured property.”
I could hear Lennox in the background, screaming something I couldn’t quite make out.
“She wants to know if you’ve lost your mind,” Terrence said.
“Tell your wife that I’m completely sane. I’m also completely done being stolen from and assaulted.”
“Mom, please. Can’t we work something out? Maybe we can—”
“No, Terrence. The time for working things out was three years ago when you first missed a payment on the promissory note. Or it was six months ago when you decided to sell the house. Or it was last week when you showed up at my door asking for help after squandering over half a million dollars. The time for working things out has passed.”
“What do you want us to do? We’re living in a motel.”
“I want you to get jobs and start taking responsibility for the mess you’ve made.”
“Lennox can’t work. She’s never had a job.”
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“Then it’s time for her to learn.”
