Part 4 — After Eighteen Years of Work, I Was Driven Out of the House, but Three Days Later One Call Wiped the Smile from Justin’s Face

“How much time do we have?” I asked.

Samuel held the telephone to his ear and went to the window. Outside, the November rain drew thin lines across the surface of the glass.

“The bank representative is coming tomorrow morning,” he said. “If we do not show them the genuine will and evidence of the forgery, they will block the property.”

Justin was still standing by the door. His face was pale, but his voice was still trying to maintain severity.

“This is all a mistake. My father left nothing to this woman.”

“You yourself heard his signed will,” Samuel replied.

“The will may be forged.”

“It may,” Samuel said. “But then you must explain why, in the loan application under your name, you wrote that the villa was free of any other heir.”

Justin looked away.

His lawyer, who entered the office several minutes later, opened the folder, read one page, and his face changed.

“Justin, it says here that you used Christopher’s signature to obtain the loan.”

“You are my lawyer. Defend me.”

“I cannot defend a lie.”

He closed the folder and left the room.

Justin remained alone.

Samuel played the recording from the beginning again. This time Justin could not escape. He heard his own voice, calm and confident, when he said that I had to be driven out of the house before anyone found the will.

“I did not say that,” he whispered.

“You did,” Samuel replied. “And that is your voice.”

The police officer placed a small recorder on the table.

“The recording will go for examination. For now, we have several questions for you.”

Justin looked toward me.

“Helena, you know that my father did not want this. You had influence over him.”

These words hurt me more than his first insult. Christopher sat beside me when I lost my daughter. I had asked him for neither property nor favor. I received only his trust, because he himself gave it to me.

!!! Mein Mann verlangte im Krankenhaus, dass ich für seine Familie koche – doch als ich eine einzige Nummer wählte, erstarrte sein Gesicht

“Your father was not influenced by me,” I said calmly. “He simply had a conscience.”

The next morning bank representatives, the police, and an expert appointed by the court arrived at the villa. Justin called different people several times and tried to hide the documents, but every step was already too late.

In the basement the experts found a small iron box. Inside were Christopher’s personal diary, copies of the loan application, and a letter that he had left for me.

The letter said: “Helena, if you are reading this, it means that I was no longer there to meet you at the door. Tell Lucas that his future was as important to me as every brick of my house. You were never a servant in this house. You were the person who turned it into a home.”

That day the bank suspended enforcement of the loan. The examination confirmed the forgery of the signature. Within several weeks Justin was officially charged with property fraud and document forgery. I had to go to court only once.

When I entered the courtroom, Justin was sitting on a chair and clasping his hands together. The judge played the recording.

“If Helena leaves, no one will learn…”

His own voice sounded in the courtroom.

Justin lowered his head. For the first time he understood that no one was exposing him. His words themselves had returned against him.

I did not wait for his punishment. My matter was with the house, not with him.

On the first day I returned to the villa, I found the rooms strangely quiet. Justin had taken his belongings, but one photograph remained on the wall—Christopher in the garden, holding small gardening shears in his hand. Beneath it, the old wooden clock was still ticking.

I placed the radio on the kitchen shelf. I touched the same button that had been enclosed in my hand while speaking with Samuel. First there was crackling, then music.

!!! Die Vorsitzende der Eigentümergemeinschaft ließ mein Farmtor aufbrechen — doch beim Anblick meines Tisches verstummte sie plötzlich

Lucas appeared in the doorway.

“Will we still be here?” he asked.

“If you want, yes.”

“Did Uncle Christopher leave this for us?”

“He left us a place where we could return.”

Lucas came to me and took my hand.

“Then let us stay here.”

Several months passed. I turned the back room of the house into Lucas’s study. His colored pencils were arranged on the windowsill, and on the desk lay his first drawing: a house, two people in the yard, and a yellow sun above.

I still woke up early, but now no one was waiting for me with an order. I watered the roses in the garden, baked bread in the kitchen, and twice a week taught the neighbor children how to grow herbs in small pots.

The first snow came at the end of December. Lucas ran into the yard and wrote his name in large letters in the snow.

That evening I received a letter from Justin. He was not in prison—until the case was finished, he was under house arrest. It said that he regretted it, that he wanted to return everything, and that I was still a member of his family to him.

I looked at the letter for a long time.

Then I called Samuel.

“Should I answer?” I asked.

“Only if you want to.”

On the paper I wrote one sentence: “Your regret is accepted, but I am not going to return to your life.”

I placed the letter beside the window and did not look at it again.

In the evening Lucas turned on the radio. The old device was still crackling, but this time the sound no longer frightened me. It filled the house like a heartbeat.

I hung Christopher’s photograph on the wall. Beneath it I attached a small plaque on which one word was written: “Return.”

Outside, snow was falling silently.

I was home.

And this time no one could close the door on me.

!!! Part 4 — I Went Alone to the Wedding Because My Family Chose My Brother — Two Years Later, When They Heard My Call, My Mother’s Smile Disappeared

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