Chapter 18 - THE LAST TRAP
I did not meet Daniel alone.
I met him in a secure interview room with Maya, his attorney, and a prosecutor present.
He looked smaller in jail clothes.
Not weaker. Just stripped of the expensive watch, the confident smile, the family table that had always protected him.
"You look good," he said.
"You look charged."
His lawyer closed his eyes.
Daniel leaned forward.
"The deed has a problem. Dad signed it the same week he was taking pain medication after dental surgery. I can challenge capacity."
Robert had warned me Daniel might try something like that.
I slid a document across the table.
"His doctor signed a competency statement that morning."
Daniel stared at it.
"Maya arranged it because Robert expected you to attack the transfer."
He looked at Maya with pure hatred.
She smiled politely.
"Continue."
Daniel's shoulders dropped.
For the next hour, he admitted pieces of everything.
The stolen money.
The forged signatures.
The fake sale.
The hospital complaint.
He claimed the fire was meant only to destroy documents, not hurt anyone.
The prosecutor wrote that down without expression.
Then Daniel looked at me.
"Mom pushed me into most of it."
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
"You were forty years old," I said. "At some point, your mother stops being an excuse."
He looked away.
The prosecutor asked about the Christmas plan.
Daniel admitted Margaret wanted me humiliated enough to leave. He had agreed because he thought a separation would make it easier to pressure Robert without me around.
"Did you know she would hit Emily?" the prosecutor asked.
Daniel paused.
"She said she might need to make it physical."
My throat tightened.
He had known.
He had sat there holding a fork, waiting for it.
The interview ended.
As guards came for him, Daniel looked back at me.
"You really think you won?"
I said nothing.
He smiled.
"Ask Dad what happens to the company when the banks find out about all this."
Robert's company.
The business my mother had once saved.
I called Robert.
He didn't answer.
May you like
Then Maya's phone rang.
The company accounts had just been frozen.
