Chapter 9 - BACK TO THE HOUSE
We returned to the house with a police officer.
I didn't want to go back.
The dining room still smelled faintly like chicken broth and smoke. A dark stain marked the rug where I had fallen.
My burned hand throbbed inside its bandage.
Robert went straight to the bathroom cabinet.
Empty.
"She cleaned it out," he said.
The officer photographed the shelves.
Maya checked the indoor camera app.
"Someone entered the house at 6:42 this morning."
The video showed Lisa.
She used her old key, walked directly upstairs, and came down four minutes later carrying a grocery bag.
I called her.
She denied it before I even finished the question.
"I wasn't there."
"We have video."
Silence.
Then: "Mom asked me to get a few personal things."
"Including Robert's medicine?"
"I don't know what was in the bag."
"Where is it now?"
She started crying.
"Emily, please. I have kids. I can't be dragged into this."
"Then tell the truth."
She whispered an address.
Margaret was staying at her sister Carol's house after being released pending arraignment.
The police obtained the medication bag later that evening. Inside were Robert's pills, three checkbooks, and a flash drive.
The flash drive changed everything.
It held scans of Robert's signature.
Copies of my signature.
Loan forms.
Draft deeds.
And a spreadsheet titled FAMILY PLAN.
Daniel's name was in the first column.
Margaret's in the second.
Dates ran down the left side.
Next to Christmas Day, one note read:
E pushes too far - D backs Mom - E leaves voluntarily.
I read it twice.
They had planned the fight.
Maybe not the soup. Maybe not the burn.
But they had planned to humiliate me until I walked out.
Maya scrolled lower.
There was another date three days away.
May you like
Next to it, Daniel had typed only two words.
SELL HOUSE.
