Hill of Secrets: An Israeli Jewish mystery novel

by Michal Hartstein

  "Did you support his sisters?"

  "Of course; my husband and I were blessed—thank God—with means. My husband owns a pretty successful company for importing raw materials for the food industry, and I inherited quite a bit of money and a number of apartments from my parents. Let's just say, we can fully support our three children, but it was always important to us that they know the value of money, so we didn't buy an apartment for any of them. We gave each of them half of the apartment's value.

  Meirav, my eldest, was lucky, and the other side of the family gave them a similar amount. Michal and Meir were a little less lucky and they had to take out mortgages. But apart from the help in purchasing an apartment, we helped each of our children immediately after the wedding, each of them according to their needs."

  "How did you and Hanni get along?"

  "We didn't mesh well." She looked down.

  "May I ask why?"

  "Even before Meir and Hanni got married, Hanni was very angry at us. When Meir begged her to return to him and they decided to get married, it was very important to Hanni to have a big, lavish wedding. I know in your circles, that is, in the secular world," I didn't correct her mistake; she continued, "There are many lavish weddings, but in our sector the weddings are a bit more modest.

  “I didn't think for a second to hold my son's wedding at a soup kitchen, but since we knew we'd have to support the young couple, we didn't think it was appropriate to hold an outlandish wedding. Meirav's wedding was certainly grand, but like I said, her husband's parents were of similar means to us. Michal had a much more modest wedding and we thought that's what Meir and Hanni's wedding was going to be like as well. We also thought, we didn't have the same means as Hanni's parents and we didn't want to burden them."

  "And what actually happened?"

  "Hanni wanted a wedding at the Tel-Aviv Hilton, just like the one we held for Meirav. We didn't have to convince her to forget it—her father did the job. Shimon Levin is a successful engineer in Israel Aerospace Industries, but he doesn't have the means to pay for a wedding at the Hilton. If you ask me, both Hanni and her mother had no problem with us paying for the entire wedding ourselves, but Shimon had a little more self-respect, so Hanni and Meir had to settle for the Dan Panorama Hotel, which was also, in my opinion, a little out of Shimon and Aviva's scope.

  “To this day, they don't know that we actually paid more than they did, even though they had more cash. We didn't want to embarrass them and we noticed the costs were too high for them. In short, although it was a very beautiful and detailed wedding, Hanni was bitter towards me from the beginning because she didn't have a big, lavish wedding like the one we organized for Meirav."

  "And she bore that grudge against you all those years?"

  "I'm sure she didn't let it go, but over the years she found other reasons to get mad at me and feel deprived. Michal—our second daughter—dher husband’s an accountant. He worked in a medium-sized accounting firm and after a few years he went to work at my husband's company as an accountant.

  “The accountant before him was older and retired, and David took his place. This was about five years before Meir and Hanni got married, six years before Meir even finished his economics degree. David may not be our son, but he's married to our daughter. Hanni thought David should give his spot to Meir. She didn’t think it was fair that David gets his salary from the family business. She ignored the support we gave them over the years with no return and meddled quite a bit with how high David's salary is."

  "She asked you about her brother-in-law's salary?" I asked in amazement.

  "Not outright, but she really involved herself with the matter. When Meir finished his studies, she asked at one of the family gatherings on Shabbat if he intended to go back to work at the accounting firm he used to work in. We were all a bit stunned by the question and Hanni explained without thinking twice that she thought David was a sort of stand in until Meir graduated."

  "Was there any basis for her to think that?"

  "To be fair, there was some basis to it. Giora, our former accountant, surprised us and retired early. David wasn't depending on this job, but he's great at it, and after all, he's close family. Of course we wouldn't push Meir into such an important position in the company a minute after he finished school. I was glad when Meir found a nice job at the bank pretty quickly after this and Hanni calmed down. Her comments to David completely disappeared when Meir got a job as a finance manager for that start-up, Fiber-something."

  "Fiberlight." I refreshed her memory.

  "Yes, that’s it. When Meir worked at Fiberlight, we had some peace about this issue, but two-and-a-half years later, when Fiberlight shut down, Hanni involved herself again with the matter. I assume she pestered Meir about it. He didn't tell me everything she said to him, but he asked me once how much David earns. I asked him why he was asking and he made an excuse about wanting to know how much to ask for when he went to job interviews.

  “I didn't tell him because I didn't think it was his business and also because I didn't think he could demand David's salary. After all, David was an accountant with thirteen years’ experience. Meir was unemployed for six months, they already had two kids and Hanni hadn't worked for two years. I was very surprised with Hanni at that time. She was a trained lawyer, and Galit was already two years old and going to day care anyway.

  “I thought the most natural thing was that she would go work too and relieve some of the pressure put on Meir. But instead of relieving the pressure, she only added to it. Since Meir and Hanni got married, we haven't stopped supporting them. We paid for the wedding Hanni wanted, we paid for half of an apartment for them in Givaat Shmuel, we helped them buy Hanni's car, we occasionally deposited money into their account when they were short and we asked for nothing in return.

  “The only thing we wanted was to see our grandchildren, a right we were entitled to mainly when Hanni needed a babysitter. I remember the time when Meir and Hanni went on a two-week vacation in Italy, when Meir was still working at Fiberlight, and we watched Ariel and Galit for a week. I remember daring saying to Hanni that maybe they could settle for just one week, not because it was hard for me to watch the children, but because I thought it was too much for two little ones like them and Hanni more or less threatened me that if I didn't watch the children when she wanted me to, I'd never get to see them."

  "She threatened to not let you see the grandchildren?"

  "Not only threatened…"

  "Meaning?"

  "In the last year-and-a-half, I saw my grandchildren exactly three times, Meir came with the kids on Rosh Hashanah, at Passover, and at a party celebrating Noa's birth."

  "Did anything trigger this excommunication?"

  "We stopped supporting them."

  "And because of that, they didn't let you see your grandchildren?"

  "Yes," she said sadly and lowered her gaze. "It was very, very hard. I loved those children with all my heart. Arieli was an amazing child, smart and incredibly beautiful. He had some difficulties—unfortunately, he didn’t get the right treatment—but I saw beyond his difficulty. The boy was simply a treasure. Galitush was such a sweet and funny girl, she loved playing with me so much. Beyond my personal pain, I was very worried about what this separation would do to the children. I was afraid the children would think they were being abandoned. Abandonment is a terrible trauma for children."

  "And you still decided to cut them off, even at the price of separation?" I asked, careful not to sound too judgmental.

  "We felt it was a price worth paying, as long as they became more independent. Like I told you, Hanni didn't work. She stopped working after Galit was born. Hanni thought that, because we have the means, we should help her live at the level she wanted. She never stopped comparing herself to others, comparisons that had nothing to do with reality."

  "Why?"

  "She was very interested in what Meir's sisters were getting, when actually, I can tell you they got less than she d
id. Even when Meir was working at Fiberlight, I kept transferring them money. Every couple of weeks they got into overdraft, Meir or even the branch manager would call me and I would make a transfer. Hanni was convinced that Meirav and Michal were also receiving money from us on a regular basis, which never happened.

  “Apart from holidays and special occasions, they managed on their own. When they were newlyweds, we did help them out more, but only in the first year or two. After that they ran their households with no help from us. You need to understand that Meirav and Michal were also some years older than Meir. And they married younger than Meir did. Hanni compared herself to Meirav and Michal, who’d been married for over ten years more than her. They’d already managed to create a comfortable life and Hanni mistakenly thought that she could afford what a couple that’s been married for ten years can afford. Besides, Meirav and Michal both work."

  "What do they do?"

  "Meirav, the older one, manages a chain of fitness clubs. She studied at Wingate and then did an M.A. in management. She's married to Oded who owns a successful law firm. Michal studied interior design and owns a nice little business with another partner. They're doing pretty well. Michal is married to David, who like I told you, is the accountant in my husband's company. They're both well-established in their own right. They did have a good starting point and strong financial backing, but I'm very proud of how far they've come. I wanted the same for Meir, but now everything is ruined."

  She broke out in tears again and I waited for her to calm down.

  "What were we talking about?" she asked after a little while, after drying her nose and eyes.

  "Meirav and Michal."

  "Right." She sniffled and went on, "When Meir was working at Fiberlight and they were doing relatively well, Michal moved into this neighborhood. We’d already bought this house, but it was still under construction. Meirav also lives down the street, in a private house, and Michal bought a penthouse a few streets down. We really wanted Meir and Hanni to move here too, so we'd all be close to one another.

  “Hanni's parents live in Ramat Gan, so we didn't think they have any special connection to Givaat Shmuel. Hanni thought we’d buy them a penthouse apartment like Michal's or a private home like Meirav's, but we refused. We were willing to give them some money, but not buy them a house. Meirav and Michal didn't get anything from us but a fairly generous housewarming present. Hanni understood we weren't about to buy her a new house in Petach Tikva, but I guess it was hard for her to accept the fact that Meirav and Michal have upscale houses and she began expressing interest in private homes in Givaat Shmuel.

  “When she realized she’d no chance of purchasing a villa, even in Givaat Shmuel, she kindly agreed to make do with remodeling their current apartment. This was before Passover, so there was a good excuse to paint and remodel the entire apartment. They also refurnished Ariel's room, the dining area and the living room. It was a little hard for me to understand why it was so urgent to replace a living room that was only five years old, but I was careful not to say anything about it."

  "And who paid for the remodeling?"

  "The bank." Sarah smiled sadly. "They took a loan to cover their overdraft and the cost of the decorating and we were the guarantors for their loan. I thought—hoped, really—that it would keep Hanni quiet for a little while. As we’d covered their overdraft so many times, Hanni promised Meir, who was very embarrassed every time he had to come ask us for money, that this renovation was the end of it, that she’d feel more comfortable in the house and be calmer."

  "And did she calm down?"

  "For a very short time. Three months after the remodeling, Fiberlight was closed and Meir became unemployed. It took Meir six months to get back to work and in that period we, again, supported them—even more intensively. My heart would break every time Meir came to me to ask for money. It was very humiliating for him, a thirty-two year old man with two kids, coming to bum money off his parents."

  She started crying again but calmed down quicker than expected. "Maybe we were wrong," she said in a quivering voice, "maybe we shouldn’t have waited until he asked, maybe we should have given it to him without him even asking?" she asked without waiting for a reply. "I know there are kids who receive constant financial support from their parents, even though the kids are already grown people with their own families—even people less well-off than us, and surely those like us, too."

  "Do you think that if you’d gone on supporting Meir and Hanni, this whole tragedy would have been avoided?"

  "If you ask me, I think so."

  Chapter 15

  "Your wife told me she believes the fact that you stopped Hanni and Meir's financial support was what brought Meir to commit such an extreme act," I told Natan after he recited his personal details for the record. It was difficult for Sarah to go on with the interview and I decided to obtain the rest of the information from her husband and, if necessary, pick up with her another time.

  Natan pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe."

  "So you think it's possible?"

  "I really don't know, it sounds too extreme to me."

  "Maybe you could tell me a little bit about the relationship you had with Meir and Hanni. I understood from your wife that there was a rift between you because of you cutting them off."

  "Right."

  "Can you expand on that?"

  "I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but my young daughter-in-law was a girl who brought out the devil in me. Who knows what she could bring out of Meir. Right from the start of her relationship with Meir, I got the sense that she was walking around feeling like she’d caught a fat fish, that she was marrying a bank account."

  "She didn't love Meir?"

  "To tell you the truth? I have no idea. I'm not sure. He was very attached to her. She was a very pretty girl, very smart, charismatic, but also petty, lazy and exploitative."

  "Elaborate, please."

  "She was always busy with comparisons. Especially to Meir's sisters. Had to know how much everyone was getting and constantly convinced that she was being discriminated against when, in reality, it was the other way around."

  "You said she was lazy."

  "It's a trait that I simply detest and I think it's the root of the problem of her behavior. A young, healthy, smart girl who has a degree but sits at home instead of getting a job…"

  "Being a housewife is also a job." I quoted my mother and recalled Hanni's immaculately tidy home.

  Natan snorted in disdain. "Hanni knew mainly how to impose jobs upon others. She had a housekeeper, and she sent the kids out to daycare from a young age. The only thing she did was occasionally cook on Fridays, but she bought most of their meals. Forgive me, she may be dead, but for many years she made my blood boil. I admit, I hoped he'd divorce her more than once."

  "Did you share these hopes with your son?"

  "Even when they were still engaged and she drove us all crazy about the wedding, I told him it wasn’t too late to call the wedding off."

  "And how did he react?"

  "He was really mad at me."

  "Because he was in love with her?"

  "Yes." Natan lowered his gaze. "Believe me, I have no idea why. Because despite all of the beauty and charisma, when you live with a person, all of the masks come off. And I have no doubt that life wasn't easy with that girl."

  "What do you mean?"

  "When they still used to come here, she’d just bully him: ‘Get this! Go there! Come here!’ If he dared ask anything of her she’d plant him a hundred meters into the ground. It's not easy for any parent to admit it, but she definitely surpassed my son intellectually and rhetorically and he was a sucker for her. She talked down to him. That's one of the reasons why I suspected she married him for the money. She didn't look like a woman in love, while he was extremely devoted to her."

  "But, after all, there wasn't so much money."

  "Not as much as she hoped. In my opinion they got above
and beyond what they needed. I know it's a painful issue, especially for my wife, who with a very heavy heart joined me in my refusal to support them, but I felt like there was no other option. I started my company alone. My wife came from a very wealthy home, but I didn't have too many luxuries growing up so my expectations from the kids are different.

  “My wife's parents died about fifteen years after we were married, and by then we managed by my own means. Following their death, my wife inherited a great fortune, but we were already financially comfortable. I never asked for money from my in-laws, and I admit that they gave without our asking and it was very convenient, but I actually refused substantial sums from them when they were alive. I felt that it was their money and I wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. That's also how we raised our children, Meirav, Michal and Meir. We had a bad example in our background and it was very important to me not to spoil my children too much."

  "What example?"

  "My wife has a brother, who inherited a sum similar to Sarah's. He relied on his parent's assets all of his life and after their death, when he inherited half of their fortune, he was spared the need to ask them for it. He spoiled his children who grew up to be quite the freeloaders. My wife's parents had a considerable fortune, but not a vast one. For a couple, it was a significant amount, but don't forget that the fortune was split in two.

  “After a few years they used up a substantial part of their share of the inheritance and today they're barely speaking to their kids, who refuse to pay them back even a small portion of what they received. They have to live very humbly. Because of Sarah's brother's story, Sarah agreed to stop supporting Hanni and Meir."

  "Why stop? Maybe you could have reduced it?"

  "We tried to cut back the support, but what happened was that Meir would go to Sarah behind my back and she'd take pity on him and transfer him money."