PART 3: Why Didn’t You Come Sooner?
Ray had told the neighbors Dad was dead so nobody would ask why they never saw him. He’d told Dad I was dead so he’d stop asking to call me. He’d told me Dad was “confused” so I’d stop asking to talk to him.
And every month, he’d pocketed my $1,200 for medication my father never received.
The pharmacy confirmed it. Dad’s prescriptions hadn’t been filled in eleven months.
Ray was charged with elder abuse, theft from a vulnerable adult, forgery, and fraud. Tiffany was charged as an accomplice. The judge called it “one of the cruelest cases of financial exploitation this court has seen.”
The house was never sold.
Dad spent nine days in the hospital, and I stayed with him for every one.
On the fourth day, he finally asked the question I’d been dreading.
“Why didn’t you come sooner, mija?”
I told him the truth: that Ray said he was napping, that Ray said he was confused, and that I believed it because it was easier than flying home.
He stayed quiet for a long time.
Then he squeezed my hand.
“You came,” he said. “That’s what I’ll remember.”
