Chapter 15 - BACK TO THE HOUSE
The police did not believe Lauren was planning to hurt Emma.
They also refused to assume she wasn't.
That distinction terrified me.
Two patrol cars went to my parents' house. Dad and Mom stayed with us while officers searched their property.
Nothing was missing.
Nothing was broken.
Then an officer checked the detached garage.
The side door was unlocked.
Inside, behind boxes of Christmas decorations, they found a folding table covered with paperwork.
Copies of Dad's trust.
Old company records.
Bank statements.
A laptop.
And printed instructions about how to challenge a trust on grounds of diminished capacity.
My father stared at the documents. "She was going to claim I wasn't competent?"
The investigator nodded. "It appears she was collecting material to support that argument."
Lauren had highlighted Dad's blood-pressure medication, an old concussion from a car accident, and two emails where he'd forgotten meeting times.
She wasn't just trying to steal money once.
She was building a backup plan.
On the laptop they found draft affidavits claiming I had manipulated Dad after Emma's birth.
One described James as "coercive and controlling."
Another accused me of isolating my parents.
The language felt familiar because it was built from fragments of real life twisted until they became weapons.
James read one page and put it down.
"She prepared this before Christmas."
The investigator nodded.
"Weeks before."
That meant the dinner explosion wasn't spontaneous.
Lauren had arrived already angry, already scheming, already convinced that Emma represented an enemy in diapers.
Then a technician called from the garage.
He had found deleted video files on the laptop.
Most were corrupted.
One opened.
The footage showed my parents' office from inside the room, recorded by a hidden camera.
Dad leaned toward the screen.
"That's my desk."
The timestamp was three months old.
Lauren had been recording my parents inside their own house.
Then another recovered file appeared.
Christmas Day.
The camera had captured the trust conversation.
And after my parents left the office, Lauren remained behind.
May you like
She looked straight toward the hidden camera and said:
"Fine. Then I'll fix it myself."
