Chapter 3 - Dad’s Medical Bills Were Mostly Covered
The second transfer I had labeled Medical.
Nine hundred dollars every month.
Dad had diabetes, heart disease, and expensive prescriptions.
I never questioned it.
Grandpa had.
Raymond was his son.
Two years earlier, Grandpa offered to help with a medication bill.
Dad looked confused.
“My insurance covers almost everything.”
That conversation started Grandpa’s suspicions.
He quietly asked Raymond what Naomi’s monthly medical support covered.
Dad went pale.
He thought I sent only occasional help.
My mother had handled the accounts.
Dad knew I contributed.
He did not know how much.
Grandpa showed me insurance statements.
My father’s average out-of-pocket medical costs were under three hundred dollars a month.
Not nine hundred.
Sometimes higher.
Often lower.
My transfers continued unchanged.
I whispered:
“Does Dad know you’re here?”
Grandpa looked down.
“He knows now.”
The night before, Grandpa confronted him.
Dad cried.
He admitted he had avoided asking questions because Valerie managed money better than he did.
That excuse infuriated me.
He had benefited from my support.
Ignorance did not make him innocent.
But it mattered that the deception had not been equally shared.
My mother had constructed the system.
May you like
My father had chosen not to examine it.
Both choices cost me.
