Chapter 5 - She Said She Was Protecting Me
I called Natalie before her SUV reached the end of the block.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Grant?”
“Turn around.”
Silence.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m standing in my father’s driveway. Turn around.”
The SUV brake lights flashed.
Then it kept moving.
“Grant, listen to me.”
“No. You listen. If you leave with anything from this house, I’m calling the police.”
“I didn’t take anything.”
“Then come back.”
She hung up.
Priya stepped onto the porch behind me.
“Did she admit being inside?”
“No.”
“Don’t chase her.”
I wanted to.
Instead, I called the non-emergency police line and reported a possible unauthorized entry. It felt ridiculous saying those words about my own wife.
Twenty minutes later, an officer named Harris walked through the house with us.
There was no broken window. No forced lock.
“She has a key?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then this gets complicated.”
Of course it did.
Everything was complicated now.
Priya found something before the officer left.
A document wedged behind an old paint can.
One page.
A photocopy of a letter from Ashford Renewal Partners offering $2.6 million for Parcel 14C.
Dated seven months earlier.
At the bottom, in handwriting I recognized, were four words:
GET GRANT TO SIGN.
The handwriting belonged to Elaine Foster.
My mother-in-law.
I took a picture and sent it to Natalie.
CALL ME.
She called instantly.
“Where did you get that?”
“You first.”
Her breathing changed.
“Grant, I can explain.”
“Good. Start explaining.”
“I found out about the land last year.”
“From your mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was trying to understand it.”
“For seven months?”
“You don’t know what your father was doing behind your back.”
“My father is in intensive care.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Were you in his house ten minutes ago?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Priya closed her eyes.
I gripped the phone.
“Why?”
“Because Raymond had something that could destroy our marriage.”
My voice dropped.
“What?”
Natalie started crying.
Not loudly. Not theatrically.
That almost made it worse.
“A file,” she said. “About what I did.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t forge your signature.”
“I didn’t ask if you forged it.”
“I know.”
“Then why would you say that?”
She whispered the answer.
May you like
“Because I know who did.”
