Chapter 8 - IF HE REFUSED
We watched the footage in Maya's office that afternoon.
The camera angle was high and wide. The dining table looked peaceful without people around it.
Then the video timestamp jumped back eight days.
Margaret entered with Daniel.
She poured wine.
Daniel said, "He won't sign if Emily is there."
Margaret answered, "Then get her out of the house."
"How?"
"Make her leave you."
My skin went cold.
Daniel laughed in the recording. "Mom, she puts up with everything."
Margaret's response was quiet.
"Then we stop being subtle."
No one in Maya's office spoke.
They discussed Robert's accounts, a new will, a power of attorney, and selling the house after he "became too difficult to manage."
Then Daniel asked, "What if he still refuses?"
Margaret stared into her wine.
"Everyone gets old. Everyone falls."
The words were not a direct threat.
They were worse because of how casually she said them.
Robert leaned back, pale.
"She changed my medication last month," he whispered.
I looked at him. "What?"
"She said the doctor changed the dosage. I felt dizzy for days."
Maya stopped the video.
"We are not guessing about this. We document it. We call his physician. We preserve the medication bottles."
Robert nodded.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
Maya gestured for me to answer on speaker.
"Emily," he said, sounding breathless. "I need you to come home. Dad is confused. Maya is filling your head with nonsense."
Robert's face hardened.
"I'm sitting beside her," he said.
Silence.
Then Daniel changed instantly.
"Dad, thank God. Mom's lawyer says the police misunderstood what happened. We can fix all of this if Emily drops the complaint."
I said, "No."
His voice sharpened. "You don't know what you're starting."
"I know exactly what I'm ending."
He hung up.
Ten minutes later, Robert's doctor called back.
His prescribed dosage had never been changed.
May you like
But when Maya asked Robert to show us the medication bottle he had brought from home, he opened his overnight bag and froze.
The bottle was gone.
