Chapter 6
Nobody opened the door.
Rachel’s husband, Ben, locked the deadbolt.
Rachel pulled Sophie away from the window.
I called 911.
Linda knocked again.
“Emily!”
Her voice carried through the door.
“I know you’re in there.”
Sophie grabbed my hand.
“Mommy.”
“It’s okay.”
I wished I believed myself.
Linda pounded harder.
“Open this door!”
Ben stood between us and the entryway.
“I’m telling her to leave.”
“No,” I said.
The dispatcher was already asking questions.
“My mother-in-law is outside. Police are trying to locate her in connection with a fraud investigation.”
“Is she armed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has she threatened you?”
“Not directly.”
Linda shouted again.
“Sophie! Grandma wants to talk to you!”
My daughter started crying.
Something inside me went cold.
“Tell officers there’s a child here.”
The dispatcher did.
Linda tried the handle.
Locked.
Then she moved to the window.
Her face appeared behind the glass.
Sophie screamed.
Rachel carried her toward the back bedroom.
I stood.
Ben blocked me.
“No.”
“She does not get to scare my daughter.”
“You are thirty-four weeks pregnant.”
“So?”
“So stay away from the woman who threw a basin over you yesterday.”
Linda slapped the glass.
“Emily!”
I stayed where I was.
“Leave!”
“I need to see Ryan’s daughter.”
“She is my daughter too.”
“You’ve poisoned her against me.”
“No. You did that yourself.”
Linda’s face twisted.
“You think you won because you made Ryan throw me out?”
“This isn’t a competition.”
“It became one the day you married him.”
There it was.
No tears.
No performance.
Just anger.
Ben quietly held up his phone and recorded.
I stepped closer, but stayed several feet from the door.
“Why did you forge my signature?”
Linda laughed.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You tried to take our house.”
“My son paid for that house.”
“We both did.”
“With money he earned.”
“I worked too.”
“Until you decided being pregnant meant becoming useless.”
My fist tightened.
“Go away.”
“I came to make you an offer.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“You should.”
Police sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Linda heard them.
Her eyes flickered toward the street.
Then back to me.
“You can make all this disappear.”
“What?”
“The report.”
“Which report?”
“All of it.”
Her voice lowered.
“Stop pushing the deed issue. Tell CPS we had a family misunderstanding. Tell Ryan you exaggerated because you were hormonal.”
I stared at her.
“You want me to lie.”
“I want you to save your marriage.”
“My marriage needs saving from you.”
Linda’s smile vanished.
“You think Ryan is going to choose you forever?”
I didn’t answer.
“He always comes back to me.”
“Then why are you standing outside my sister’s house begging me to drop an investigation?”
Her face turned red.
“You smug little—”
Two police cars turned onto the street.
Linda stepped away from the window.
For one wild second, I thought she might run.
She didn’t.
She straightened her jacket.
By the time officers approached, her face had changed.
She looked fragile.
Confused.
Victimized.
“I came to check on my granddaughter.”
Ben muttered, “Unbelievable.”
One officer asked her to step away from the house.
Linda started crying.
“My family has been torn apart.”
The officer was unmoved.
“Ma’am, Detective Mason has requested that you contact him.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Then you can discuss that with him.”
She glanced at me through the window.
Her eyes promised something.
Not forgiveness.
Not peace.
War.
The officers escorted her to her car but did not arrest her.
Detective Mason later explained he did not yet have grounds to detain her.
The document investigation was active.
Patricia Lane had retained an attorney.
The filed deed had been flagged before recording was completed.
That meant our house remained legally ours.
For now.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, I kept thinking about Linda’s words.
He always comes back to me.
Ryan arrived at Rachel’s house an hour later.
I had not told him to come.
Detective Mason had.
He wanted both of us available for interviews.
When Ryan walked inside, Sophie ran toward him.
“Daddy!”
He dropped to his knees and held her.
She buried her face against his neck.
“Grandma came.”
“I know.”
“She wanted me to lie.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“I know, baby.”
“Is Grandma bad?”
The question destroyed him.
He looked at me.
I had no answer either.
Ryan finally said, “Grandma is making bad choices.”
“Really bad?”
“Yes.”
“Because she doesn’t like Mommy?”
He swallowed.
“Yes.”
Sophie considered that.
Then she whispered, “I like Mommy.”
I covered my mouth.
Ryan hugged her tighter.
“So do I.”
She pulled back.
“Then why did you believe Grandma?”
Silence.
Five years old.
One question.
No place for him to hide.
Ryan’s eyes filled.
“Because Daddy made a mistake.”
“You thought Mommy was lying.”
“Yes.”
“Mommy doesn’t lie.”
“I know.”
Sophie frowned.
“Grandma does.”
Ryan looked shattered.
I took Sophie’s hand.
“Sweetheart, go show Aunt Rachel your drawing.”
When she left, Ryan stayed kneeling for several seconds.
Then he stood.
“I deserved that.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“I talked to a therapist this morning.”
That surprised me.
“What?”
“I called someone Melissa recommended.”
“You already had an appointment?”
“A virtual one.”
“When?”
“Before the CPS visit.”
I sat down slowly.
Ryan continued.
“He said something I hated.”
“That sounds promising.”
“He asked why I needed my mother to agree that she hurt people before I felt allowed to protect myself from her.”
I said nothing.
“He asked why her intentions mattered more to me than the damage she caused.”
“That is a good question.”
“I didn’t have an answer.”
“I do.”
He looked at me.
“Because admitting she was hurting us would mean admitting you let it happen.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“And because if Linda is just misunderstood, you don’t have to feel guilty.”
“Yes.”
“But if she knew exactly what she was doing—”
“Then I failed you.”
I did not soften it.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
I was starting to hate those words.
But this time he continued.
“And I can’t repair that by asking you to forgive me quickly.”
I looked up.
“No.”
“I have to change what I do.”
“Yes.”
“I froze the accounts.”
“Good.”
“I changed every password.”
“Good.”
“I contacted the credit bureaus.”
“Good.”
“I also told my entire family that Mom’s version of yesterday was false.”
I blinked.
“You did?”
“I didn’t post the video. Melissa said not to.”
“Good.”
“But I sent a message saying I personally witnessed the recording and Mom lied about the incident.”
“How did they react?”
Ryan laughed without humor.
“Half said they support me. Half said family problems should stay private.”
“Of course.”
“My brother called me.”
“David?”
“Yes.”
I had always liked Ryan’s older brother.
He lived three states away and kept his distance from Linda.
Now I understood why.
“What did he say?”
Ryan sat down.
“He asked why it took me this long.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting.”
“He said Mom did things like this to his first wife.”
“What things?”
“Lying. Interfering. Calling her employer. Telling people she was unstable.”
I stared.
“David never told you?”
“He said he tried.”
“What does that mean?”
Ryan looked ashamed.
“He said I defended Mom.”
Of course he did.
“What happened to his marriage?”
“They divorced.”
My chest tightened.
“Because of Linda?”
“Not entirely. But David says Mom made everything worse.”
“Where is his ex-wife?”
“Colorado.”
“And why has no one mentioned this?”
“Because Mom told everyone Rachel—his Rachel, not your sister—was crazy.”
I almost laughed at the coincidence of names.
“Was she?”
Ryan shook his head.
“David says no.”
“What else did he say?”
Ryan hesitated.
“That Mom once filed a false police report against her.”
My skin prickled.
“For what?”
“Stealing jewelry.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Mom found the jewelry later.”
“And apologized?”
Ryan looked at me.
That was answer enough.
“Jesus.”
“David is flying here tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“He has records.”
“What records?”
“Emails. Messages. Old financial documents.”
My pulse sped up.
“Financial?”
Ryan nodded.
“He thinks Mom took money from him too.”
The pattern was growing.
Not one bad day.
Not one angry mother-in-law.
A system.
Control.
Money.
Lies.
Isolation.
Punishment.
I felt foolish for ever believing I could win Linda over by being more patient.
People like Linda used patience as extra room to move.
Before I could respond, Melissa called.
“We have a development.”
Her tone made both of us sit straighter.
“What?”
“Patricia Lane’s attorney contacted the detective.”
Ryan leaned forward.
“And?”
“She is cooperating.”
My breath caught.
“What did she say?”
“I don’t have the formal statement, but she claims Linda brought the deed to her already signed.”
“So she notarized signatures she didn’t witness?”
“Yes.”
“That’s illegal.”
“Yes.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Linda allegedly told her you and Ryan were both aware of the transfer but you were on bed rest and couldn’t appear.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I wasn’t on bed rest.”
“Patricia now says she realizes she was lied to.”
Ryan’s mouth tightened.
“She still notarized it.”
“Correct.”
“What happens to her?”
“That’s for investigators and licensing authorities.”
I asked the question that mattered.
“Did Linda submit it?”
“Yes.”
My heart pounded.
“But the clerk flagged the document because the signatures did not sufficiently match prior filings and because of a technical defect.”
“What defect?”
“The ownership language was inconsistent.”
“So she almost got away with it?”
Melissa paused.
“She got far enough that you should treat this seriously.”
I pressed a hand to my belly.
The baby kicked.
“Why?”
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“There’s always more.”
“Patricia says Linda told her she needed the property transferred quickly because Ryan was preparing to divorce you.”
I looked at Ryan.
He looked horrified.
“She said what?”
Melissa continued.
“And Linda claimed the transfer was part of an agreement between the three of you.”
“There was no agreement.”
“I know.”
Ryan stood.
“I never told her I was divorcing Emily.”
“We know.”
“She invented it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Melissa was silent.
Then she said, “I believe we may have an answer.”
I waited.
“Detective Mason located documents in connection with the bank investigation.”
“What documents?”
“A loan application.”
I looked at Ryan.
He shook his head.
“What loan?”
Melissa answered.
“A home-equity loan.”
My blood went cold.
“How much?”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
I stopped breathing.
“Against our house?”
“It appears Linda was attempting to establish enough ownership interest to borrow against the property.”
Ryan gripped the back of a chair.
“For what?”
“That part isn’t clear yet.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
I looked down.
There was a photograph attached.
Linda.
Standing beside a smiling man at what looked like a sales office.
Behind them was a sign.
SUNSET PALMS LUXURY RETIREMENT COMMUNITY.
Under the photograph was one sentence.
You should ask your mother-in-law where the $80,000 deposit came from.
I showed Ryan.
He stared at it.
May you like
Then he whispered,
“She was stealing our future to buy hers.”
