Two hours later Metty and Sylvia sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee with Cathy. Sylvia had stopped sobbing, but her eyes were red and swollen. At a knock on the front door Cathy got up and came back with Ben. He poured a cup of coffee and sat down.

"Mom, Cathy, told me a little of what happened on the phone," he said. "Are you sure it's true?"

Sylvia began to sniffle. "We checked the church bulletin online. The wedding of Bryan Larson and Alice Johnson on December 31 was announced." She broke down and cried. Metty handed her a tissue.

"Damn that man. You took him in when he was broke. Had nothing."

"It gets worse. Tell them, Mom, or shall I?"

Cathy and Wallace looked from Metty to Sylvia."

"Mom, tell us."

Sylvia shook her head miserably. She pointed to Metty.

"He cleaned out their joint bank account and charged about a thousand dollars to Mom's credit card. Her January pension check was still in the bank, so we went to the teller machine and got out as much cash as we could."

"How much is still in there?

"Less than $100. We could only take out $400 cash, but we went to the store and bought gift cards. We saved most of her pension payment."

"When did he get married?"

"December 31."

"Ben, you're a paralegal. You know about this stuff. What can I do?" Sylvia looked hopefully at him.

"It's tricky. Since he's on the account, he has a right to the money. I don't think you can get the cash he took back."

"Oh, no, no," said Cathy. Ben cursed again.

"Yes, he did," Sylvia wailed "He took my cash, he took the earrings he gave me, and my jewelry. Your Dad's coin collection."

Ben shook his head. "I'll talk to my boss tomorrow. Our firm doesn't handle domestic law, but she'll recommend a good lawyer. You need to take action against him right away. Ask for custody of Bryany and child support." After a moment thinking, he said, "Dad left his coin collection to us three, his children. Taking the coin collection is theft." He smiled, not a friendly smile.

What a holiday. Metty stirred sugar into her coffee. Three weeks ago, my birthday was great, Christmas was wonderful. We were looking forward to better things in 2022. A new future and new lives. Now we're set back years.

*

Ben was correct about the theft of the coin collection, actually worth about $3500, being theft. Bryan was arrested when he tried to pawn the collection. Metty's father had collected coins during his Air Force career. The collection was not extremely valuable but had some unusual coins that were identifiable when the pawnbroker checked to see if the collection might have been stolen.

His new wife bailed him out, and he called Sylvia, screaming at her. Sylvia began to wail and cry, saying it wasn't her fault, her children insisted because the coins belonged to them.

Ben took the phone and told Ben if he called any of them again, he'd see his bail was revoked. The collection belonged to him and his sisters, and they were pressing charges.

Lawyers took over, and the Griffins learned that Bryan inherited $200,000 early in 2021. He'd told Sylvia his inheritance was 20,000, which he claimed he set aside for Bryany's education. Another lie.

Sylvia and Bryan agreed to joint custody of Bryany. The girl, however, refused to live with her mother and went to live with her father and his new wife. "I wanna be there when my baby brother is born," she insisted.

Sylvia was unhappy but agreed. However, Bryan had to repay some of the funds he taken from their account and didn't get child support for Bryany. Sylvia paid a small allowance for her schooling and clothes.

Sylvia had applied for a few jobs, but there weren't many she was qualified to do. She moaned about expenses and kept asking when Metty would move back.

Metty accepted that she would probably have to, at least until she graduated, and the family sold the house. That meant Grandma June would be alone. She couldn't live alone. Another problem.