Chapter 18 - A Victory That Wasn't
For twenty-four hours, I believed the worst had passed.
The contested property paperwork was blocked from being treated as an uncontested transfer, and the lender had withdrawn its immediate demand for collateral.
Denise received written confirmation that her lease remained in force.
Tyler brought me back the little wooden box.
Inside lay Harold's wedding ring.
He said he'd taken it from Marissa's bedroom while collecting his own belongings.
I didn't ask how many arguments that had caused.
I just held the ring until the shaking in my fingers stopped.
“I'm moving out,” Tyler said.
“I've talked to a counselor.
I know I should have told the truth sooner.”
“I wish you had,” I answered.
He nodded, accepting that apology wouldn't erase what he'd done.
For the first time, he didn't ask me to fix anything for him.
Then Leah called.
A fraud alert had caught an attempted transfer from my savings account.
The bank had blocked it pending verification.
The person making the attempt had entered answers to security questions I'd once shared with Tyler.
I turned toward him.
He looked as startled as I felt.
“I didn't do that,” he said.
“I want to believe you.”
He went pale.
“That's the worst thing I've ever heard you say to me.”
I didn't soften it.
Truth sometimes came without padding.
We contacted the bank and Officer Reyes, preserved the alert, and tightened account protections again.
Later that night Tyler called with information from a message Marissa had sent to his old phone.
She had written that if she couldn't have Alder Lane, she would take the cash I had left.
“I can show them the message,” he said.
“Will you?”
“Yes.”
Then he paused.
May you like
“Grandma, there's something else.
I need to tell the police what I did with your signature scans.”
