Chapter 3 - THE HOUSE SHE CLAIMED
Daniel read the first page twice.
Margaret watched him with the calm confidence of someone who had saved her favorite weapon for last.
“You’ve been living in my property,” she said. “So before you start throwing people out, you may want to remember who can actually be removed.”
Emily felt her stomach drop.
The house had belonged to Daniel’s father, Thomas, before he died four years earlier. Daniel had always said his father transferred it to him shortly before his death.
Daniel flipped to the signature page.
“This is dated three weeks after Dad went into hospice.”
“Yes.”
“He couldn’t sign his own name by then.”
Margaret’s smile thinned. “He had good days.”
“No. He didn’t.”
Margaret stepped closer. “Would you like to argue about medical history, or would you like to call a lawyer?”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“I’ll call one.”
Emily caught his wrist. “Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“You knew something like this existed?”
His silence hurt worse than an answer.
Margaret saw it.
“Oh, Emily,” she said, almost sweetly. “There is so much your husband protects you from. He thinks silence is love.”
Daniel’s hand clenched around the phone.
“Upstairs.”
Margaret didn’t move.
“Or what?”
“Or I call the police and have them stand here while you pack.”
The room went still.
Margaret’s eyes sharpened. “You wouldn’t.”
Daniel dialed.
She turned first.
Her heels struck the marble in hard, angry beats as she climbed the stairs.
Emily watched until she disappeared.
Then she faced Daniel.
“Tell me everything.”
He looked exhausted all at once.
“I found a copy of Dad’s original transfer last year. The house is mine. That paper is either fake or based on a forged signature.”
“Last year?”
“I was collecting evidence.”
“Against your mother?”
“Yes.”
“And you never thought your wife should know?”
“I thought I could keep this away from you.”
Emily laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“I’m standing in frosting because you kept it away from me.”
A phone buzzed on the table.
Not Daniel’s.
Margaret had left hers beside the flowers.
The screen lit with a new message.
Emily saw the preview before Daniel could turn it over.
UNKNOWN: Did she sign the bakery papers yet?
Emily went completely still.
May you like
“What bakery papers?” Daniel asked.
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