Chapter 4 - The Truth About Kendall
Two days after the deposition, my phone rang. It was an unknown number with a Florida area code.
I answered carefully. "Nora Hayes."
"Nora... it’s Kendall."
I hesitated. Kendall had been crying in the hospital room that day, but she had also been the cause of the initial demand for money. "Kendall. If this is about the wedding—"
"It’s not," she interrupted quickly, her voice cracking. "I... I'm calling to say I'm sorry. I had no idea what Mason and Mom were doing. I swear to you, Nora, I didn't know."
I sat down on the edge of my bed in my temporary apartment near base. "Kendall, you were there when your mother demanded I sell my medals."
"Because Mom told me you had agreed to give us a loan!" Kendall sobbed into the phone. "She told me you were getting a massive government payout and that you offered to pay for the venue as a wedding gift! She said you were just being dramatic when we got to the hospital because you were off your medication!"
I felt a tight knot in my chest loosen slightly. Kendall had always been impressionable, easily manipulated by Carolyn's overbearing personality.
"Mason lied to me too," Kendall continued, catching her breath. "He told me he was taking care of your bills while you were sick. But yesterday, after the lawyers called him, he came home and had a massive fight with Mom. He admitted everything. He told her about Victoria. He told her he had been using your money to pay for Victoria's apartment in Miami."
"And what did your mother say?" I asked quietly.
"Mom blamed you," Kendall said, sounding disgusted. "She said if you had been a better wife and stayed home instead of deploying, Mason wouldn't have looked elsewhere. I couldn't listen to it anymore, Nora. I packed my things and left."
"Where are you now?"
"At a friend's place in Richmond. I canceled the venue at the Grand Riviera. I called off the wedding."
I was silent for a moment. "Kendall, your fiancé... did he know about any of this?"
"No. He thought my family was covering it from an old inheritance," she admitted. "When he found out Mason took it from your recovery fund, he was horrified. He told me he couldn't marry into a family that would do something like that to a wounded veteran. And honestly? I don't blame him."
I took a deep breath. "What are you going to do now?"
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"I got a job at a design firm in D.C. starting next month," Kendall said softly. "I'm starting over. I just... I needed you to know that I didn't want your medals sold, Nora. I know what you went through to earn them. I remember the night you came back from your second deployment and couldn't sleep because of the nightmares. I never wanted to hurt you."
"Thank you for calling, Kendall," I said, feeling a rare sense of peace. "Good luck in Richmond."
