Chapter 13 - Thirty-Six Hours
Mark called Ellis before he drove to the estate.
Police met him at the back gate, where Beatrice waited under a porch light with her suitcase and the recipe card.
She was unharmed, but someone had searched her room while she hid in the laundry closet.
"They wanted the cards," she said. "I heard Mr. Pike telling someone to find Claire's papers before the hearing."
Ellis documented the disturbed room and advised Beatrice to stay elsewhere.
Mark brought her to Hannah's workshop, where Evelyn was already waiting.
For the first time in sixteen years, the two sisters of the family sat at one table.
Nobody had forgotten the damage.
But nobody walked away.
At the courthouse the next morning, Samir asked a judge to block the transfer until the authenticity of both signatures could be examined.
Pike argued that Mark was an embittered beneficiary exploiting an unrelated family emergency.
"A child was endangered," Samir replied. "And my client discovered the alleged authorization only after the scheduled closing date became public."
The judge ordered preservation of records but postponed the injunction ruling until the next afternoon.
Only thirty-six hours remained before the proposed sale.
Outside the courtroom, Sloane brushed past Mark with a smile.
"Even if you win, the county can't afford to take back all that land. They'll beg us to manage it."
Hannah gripped Mark's arm.
"He's counting on the debt your mother created."
Samir's phone rang.
The title company had found another surprise: a lien against the estate for eight million dollars, payable immediately if the sale failed.
Mark looked at the amount.
Even if they stopped the sale, the entire property might be seized.
May you like
Sloane hadn't been bluffing.
He had arranged to win either way.
