Chapter 4 - David Comes to Collect
David always entered rooms as if he had already won the argument.
Tall, expensive coat, perfect hair, too much confidence.
Margaret opened her office door only after telling her receptionist to keep the security button ready.
David stood in the lobby with Laura two steps behind him.
My daughter looked pale.
“Mom,” she said. “Why are you doing this?”
I almost laughed.
“Doing what?”
David answered for her.
“Making a private family issue into a legal circus.”
Margaret stepped between us.
“Mr. Mercer, this is a law office. You will speak respectfully or you will leave.”
He smiled without warmth.
“I’m not here for you.”
“You are now.”
Laura looked at me.
“Mom, David just needs the original deed package. We can explain everything later.”
“No.”
Her face changed.
It was not sadness.
It was shock.
I realized then how rarely I had said that word to any of my children.
David crossed his arms.
“Elena, you don’t understand the financing.”
“I understand my signature is on a document I never signed.”
Laura’s eyes flicked toward him.
Tiny movement.
Too fast for anyone who did not know her.
I knew her.
“You knew?” I asked.
“What?”
“You knew about the signature.”
“No.”
David cut in. “This is ridiculous. It was a preliminary form.”
Margaret said, “A preliminary form submitted to a lender as genuine.”
His jaw tightened.
“You people are overreacting.”
I looked at Laura.
“Did you forge my name?”
“No!”
“Did he?”
She did not answer.
That answer hurt more than yes would have.
David stepped forward.
“I’ve put over three hundred thousand dollars into that property.”
“Without owning it.”
“With the family’s understanding that it would eventually be ours.”
“Whose understanding?”
“Richard’s.”
That stopped me.
“My husband never told you that.”
David smiled.
“No? Then maybe you don’t know everything Richard said before he died.”
Laura whispered, “David.”
He ignored her.
“He wanted the lake house to stay with the family. Specifically with us. I have proof.”
Margaret’s gaze sharpened.
“What proof?”
David reached inside his coat.
Security moved at once, but he only removed an envelope.
He tossed it onto Margaret’s desk.
Inside was a photocopy of a letter bearing Richard’s signature.
I read the first three lines.
Then the room tilted.
Because the letter said Richard intended to leave Lake Azul House to Laura.
And the date on it was six months after the document in my blue folder.
Margaret looked at me.
“Have you ever seen this before?”
I whispered, “No.”
David smiled.
May you like
“Then maybe your blue folder isn’t the final word after all.”
