Chapter 5 - Richard’s Missing Letter
Margaret did not react the way David expected.
She picked up the copy with two fingers.
“This is not an original.”
“It exists.”
“Where?”
“In a safe place.”
“Convenient.”
David’s smile disappeared.
Laura looked like she wanted the floor to open.
I studied the signature.
It looked like Richard’s.
But something about the letter bothered me.
The date.
June 14.
Richard had been in Houston that week receiving radiation treatments. He could barely hold a fork without his hand shaking.
Yet the signature was smooth.
Too smooth.
I said nothing.
Margaret did.
“If you believe this letter changes title, have your attorney send me the original.”
David scoffed. “You think I’m bluffing?”
“I think you walked into my office demanding property records after submitting a document with my client’s unauthorized signature. So yes, Mr. Mercer. I think bluffing is one of the kinder possibilities.”
He went red.
Laura grabbed his arm.
“Let’s go.”
He pulled free.
“You’re turning her against us.”
Margaret laughed once.
“No. You seem to be doing that yourself.”
David pointed at me.
“If you kill this loan, the renovation company comes after us. We have contracts. We have deposits.”
“You took deposits?” I asked.
Laura stared at the floor.
My skin went cold.
“From who?”
David said nothing.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Did you rent out a property you don’t own?”
Still nothing.
Laura suddenly burst into tears.
“Mom, please. We can fix this.”
I had seen Laura cry at school plays, funerals, graduations, weddings. This was different.
This was fear.
“What did he do?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Laura.”
David’s voice dropped.
“Don’t.”
That was the moment I stopped seeing him as my daughter’s difficult husband and started seeing him as a man who was controlling the room through fear.
I walked toward Laura.
“What did he do?”
She looked at me.
Then at David.
Then she whispered, “He sold Christmas week.”
“What?”
“The lake house. He rented it to a corporate group. Twenty-six thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
“That house is insured as a private residence.”
“I know.”
“When are they arriving?”
Laura’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Tomorrow.”
David swore under his breath.
Margaret grabbed her phone.
I asked one final question.
“Who has the keys?”
Laura answered before David could stop her.
“He changed the locks last month.”
Then Margaret said the sentence that turned a family fight into an emergency.
May you like
“Elena, if strangers are occupying your property under a fraudulent rental agreement, we need to get there before they do.”
