On a day when the husband saw the room full of chatter he used the opportunity to pull the youngest daughter out of the hospital room and decided it was a good time to once again pick up on the conversation about her mom's money. He said it was getting harder for him to pull money out of his wife's account now that he was staying in the hospital. He continued saying that even if he did find the time to go he didn't have enough time to get it all out before she passed away. A thousand dollars a day was taking too long. He said he needed the daughter's help in getting the money out faster. 

The husband gave the daughter her mom's phone and asked her if there was a way that she could get into her mom's account and transfer her money into his account. Not having a good feeling about all that had the daughter paused. She'd already had a conversation with her mom and sister about what she wanted done with her money and here he was asking her to do something different. It just felt shady.

The daughter told the husband that she didn't know how to do that, but she herself was attached to her cash app and could transfer the money into her own account in bigger increments than the 1,000.00 he was doing. He quickly agreed that she should do that and asked her to do it right then in front of him to get it started. As weird as all of this felt knowing that her mom wanted them to have her money made her feel a little better about everything. In the daughter's mind it was probably better that she had the money in her account so that when the day came she could make sure her mom's last wish was honored. She knew out of anyone she would 100% do the right thing with the money. Everyone would get their equal share of whatever was transferred not including whatever the husband had already taken out. He'd already made it to where he was ending up with more than he was supposed to, but oh well that wasn't a big deal.

After the daughter made the first cash app transfer the husband brought up the mom's three unsigned disability checks. He said that they had to be signed and cashed before her mom passed away or he'd lose out on 3,600.00. (each were 1,200.00) He wasn't sure how he could get the money though. He asked the daughter if she would sign her mom's name and take the checks to her bank and try to cash them for him.

The daughter just looked at him in disbelief. He had just asked her to commit forgery so he could pocket more of their mom's money. Unbelievable. There was no way that she was going to do that. Absolutely not. How dare he even ask that of her? It was as if he once again didn't care that he was putting her in a position to get in trouble legally. All he cared about was getting the money. She told the husband that that was not something that she felt comfortable doing and wasn't going to do it.

The look on his face was one of surprise. He didn't expect for her to tell him no. He told her okay that he would do it himself, but for her to continue to transfer the money. That she agreed to do. That wasn't a crime like forging someone's name was. He asked her to keep it all to herself and specifically said not to mention anything to her brother or sister. He said that what they were doing was no ones business. She nodded her head in agreement, but had no intention of keeping it a secret. Any and everything that she was going to do would be discussed with her older sister. No way was she going to give him the opportunity to use any of these actions against her. No way was she going to let him use this to possibly put a wedge between her and her brother and sister later with saying she was keeping money secrets from them. She was smarter than that and quite honestly trusted that the husband would try to later pit everyone against each other if things didn't go his way.

After that conversation in the hallway the daughter asked her sister to go down with her to the cafeteria to get something to drink and let her know everything that just happened. It was crazy that the husband thought she would keep such a big thing from her family. That was just not the type of person she was. 

The oldest daughter couldn't believe what she'd been told. She thought that the husband was being a sneaky bastard. She told her sister that she did a good thing by getting the money into her own account. She reiterated that they shouldn't make a big deal about any of this at the moment, that it would only cause problems for them and they just needed to be there for their mom right now. They agreed to just continue what they were doing and worry about everything else later. No way was that greedy man going to ruin the last few days they had with their mom.

After that day there were some good days that came with the mother, days that she was very lucid and talked about the past and her hopes for the future. She would sometimes talk as if she thought she was going to get better and leave the hospital. Those days and conversations were the hardest for the family. She didn’t always understand the severity of the situation and that was due to the cancer and multiple surgeries. Her mind was just not all there at times. Those times brought so many tears to the family. Seeing how hopeful she was and hearing all the plans she was making for when she’d get out of the hospital was hard. She wanted to continue her chemotherapy treatments to try and fight the cancer and knowing that wasn't possible was too much to take at times.

She still wanted to fight even after her oncologist told her there was nothing left for them to do. She knew that they canceled all further treatments. The mom would say okay, but still not fully understand and talk about getting better. It was heartbreaking knowing that was never going to happen.

Then there were days that the mother would be clear minded and know exactly what was going on and those days were even worse. Hearing the mother talk about never leaving the hospital, that the hospital was her new home made everyone cry. Seeing the realization cross their mother's mind and watching her cry because she knew she was dying soon was too much. The family did as best they could to try and reassure her that everything would be okay.

The mother being the strong woman she’d always been would try and quickly get herself out of her sadness. She’d tell them all she was okay and that she just needed to cry sometimes. No more tears, she would tell everyone while wiping away her own and trying to show her family she was strong and okay.

No more tears.

The mother loved her children and husband so much. It was always apparent that she loved her family with all her heart. During a few of her sad spells the mother would cry and ask her children to please take care of her husband after she was gone. She asked repeatedly and it was so hard for the kids to not be able to say okay to her request. They didn’t want to promise their mother something they weren’t sure they'd be able to fulfill. And with all that was happening it was looking more and more like once she was gone all their relationships would be strained.

They'd always tell her that everything would be fine, that he was a grown man and he could take care of himself, that she’d taught him well this past year. Those conversations only fueled the daughter's anger for the husband. Here his wife was begging for them to take care of him once she was gone and what was he doing? Worrying about her money. Where was he always disappearing to? Who was he always on that damn phone with? No one knew. (They would soon get the answers to those questions though, and the truth would put everything in perspective.)

The only reason they could imagine he might think justified this behavior was that because he was the one spending the nights in the hospital it gave him a free pass to be gone all day. That was not the case. Him being there at night while drugging her to make sure she slept through the night so he could sleep was not a free pass to leave all day and not spend quality time with her while he could.

All of this seemed so petty. It really did. Nobody should have to be going through the things that this family was going through. The fact that the mom wasn't going to be with them for much longer should be the only thing on their minds. Not money, not disappearing acts, and not a hatred for a man that at one time they'd considered a father figure. So much had changed in such a short time. Too much to ever go back. All that was left was to go through the motions. Do what they could to make sure their mom's last days were as happy as they could be.

As the days passed the mother began to get weaker and weaker. She slept more and more. There was no denying the end was closer than ever.

Start Chapter 12 - A Son's Promise