Estas Patterson was watering her flowers and the Johnson boy was riding his bicycle in circles in their driveway.
Everything looked normal, peaceful, but I knew that nothing would ever be normal again.
Tomorrow, Terrence and Lennox would receive the legal papers. They would realize that their actions had real consequences, and I would find out once and for all whether the son I’d raised still existed somewhere inside the man Lennox had created.
3 days after I filed the lawsuit, James Crawford called me with news that made my blood run cold.
Bessie, I need you to sit down. He said, “My investigator has been looking into your daughter-in-law’s background, and we’ve uncovered some things you need to know.”
I was already sitting at my kitchen table, but I gripped the phone tighter.
What kind of things?
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 6 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 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.
I closed my eyes, processing this information.
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 30 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.
$67,000?
You’re suing us for $67,000?
That’s what you owe me.
Plus interest plus legal fees plus damages.
We don’t have $67,000.
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 lean 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 3 years ago when you first missed a payment on the promisory note.
Or it was 6 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.
Then it’s time for her to learn.
Mom, you don’t understand.
She’s not capable of working some minimum wage job.
She’s She’s what, Terrence?
Too good to work?
Too special to contribute to her own survival?
The silence stretched between us.
Finally, Terrence spoke, his voice quieter now.
She says she’ll counter Sue for emotional distress or something.
I almost laughed.
Let her try.
I have witnesses to her assaulting me and I have documentation of every dollar she stole.
What does she have?
More screaming in the background.
Then Terrence came back on the line.
She wants to know why you’re doing this to us because you both need to learn that actions have consequences.
And Terrence, there’s something else you need to know about your wife.
What?
I hesitated.
This was the moment of truth.
The moment when I would either save my son or lose him forever.
She’s been having an affair.
The silence that followed was deafening.
I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears.
What did you say?
Lennox has been having an affair for at least 6 months.
The man is wealthy and married.
She’s been using your money to fund their relationship.
That’s not true.
It is true.
My attorney hired an investigator.
We have proof.
You hired an investigator to spy on my wife.
I hired an investigator to find out where $600,000 went.
The affair was just what we discovered in the process.
more silence.
Then in the background, I heard Lennox’s voice clearly for the first time.
“What is she saying?
What lies is she telling you about me?”
“She says, you’re having an affair,” Terrence said, his voice hollow.
The explosion that followed was audible, even through the phone.
“Lenn screamed,” denials, accusations, threats.
She called me every name in the book, and a few I’d never heard before.
