Chapter 2
For one terrible second, the pain in my body disappeared.
All I could hear were Ryan’s words.
The second deed.
“What second deed?”
Ryan shoved the papers under his jacket.
The pounding at the front door came again.
“Sarah!” my father shouted. “Answer me!”
Ryan leaned down until his face was inches from mine.
“You keep your mouth shut.”
I stared at him.
My heart was racing so hard I could feel it in my throat.
“What did you do?”
His jaw tightened.
Then the front door shook violently.
My father wasn’t waiting anymore.
Ryan looked toward the hallway.
“You called him over nothing.”
“Nothing?”
I looked at the mop lying on the floor.
My arms were already swelling.
I could barely sit upright.
Ryan kicked the mop toward the pantry.
“You fell.”
I actually laughed.
It came out broken and breathless.
“You think he’ll believe that?”
Ryan’s expression changed.
The anger disappeared.
Something colder replaced it.
“You’d better hope he does.”
The next sound was wood cracking.
My father had forced the door open.
“Sarah!”
Ryan shot to his feet.
I heard footsteps rushing down the hallway.
Then my father appeared in the kitchen.
He stopped dead.
I had never seen that look on his face before.
My father, Thomas Bennett, was sixty-three years old.
He was usually calm.
Careful.
The kind of man who would lower his voice when everyone else was yelling.
But the moment he saw me on the floor, bruised and shaking, something inside him broke.
“Dear God.”
He rushed toward me.
Ryan stepped between us.
“She fell.”
My father looked at him.
“What?”
“She was angry. She slipped.”
My father’s eyes moved to my shoulder.
Then my back.
Then the broken phone against the wall.
Then the mop.
He looked back at Ryan.
“Move.”
Ryan folded his arms.
“You broke into my house.”
My father’s face went completely still.
“Your house?”
Ryan realized his mistake.
But it was too late.
Dad stepped closer.
“The house I gave my daughter the down payment for?”
“I live here.”
“That doesn’t make it yours.”
Ryan’s face flushed.
Dad pointed toward me.
“Move away from my daughter.”
Ryan didn’t.
So Dad did something I never expected.
He grabbed Ryan by the front of his shirt and shoved him away from me.
Ryan stumbled into the table.
The papers fell from inside his jacket.
Pages scattered across the floor.
Dad immediately knelt beside me.
“Sarah, look at me.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
His hands trembled as he touched my face.
“What happened?”
Ryan answered from behind him.
“She’s dramatic.”
Dad slowly turned.
I grabbed his arm.
“Dad.”
I knew that look.
He wanted to hit Ryan.
Maybe worse.
And despite everything Ryan had done, I didn’t want my father getting arrested because of him.
“Call the police,” I whispered.
Dad looked at me.
Then he pulled out his phone.
Ryan moved toward the scattered papers.
I saw him trying to gather them.
“Don’t let him take those.”
Dad immediately noticed.
“What are they?”
Ryan froze.
“Private marital documents.”
I pushed myself against the island.
“He wanted me to sign the house over.”
Dad stared at Ryan.
Then at the documents.
“He did what?”
“It’s not what she thinks,” Ryan said.
My father picked up one page.
He read it.
His expression hardened.
Then he picked up another.
And another.
Suddenly he stopped.
His eyes stayed on one sheet.
“What is this?”
Ryan lunged forward.
“I said those are private.”
Dad stepped back.
“No.”
“What?”
“This isn’t the document she was being asked to sign.”
My stomach dropped.
“Dad?”
He looked at me.
“This is a copy of a recorded deed.”
Ryan’s face went white.
Dad read the page more carefully.
Then his eyes lifted.
“According to this, your house was transferred six months ago.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
Ryan said nothing.
“Transferred to who?”
Dad looked at the page.
Then he looked directly at Ryan.
“To a company called Fairmont Residential Holdings.”
I didn’t recognize the name.
Neither did Dad.
But Ryan did.
I saw it immediately.
His eyes shifted.
Dad saw it too.
“What is Fairmont Residential Holdings?”
Ryan folded his arms.
“Never heard of it.”
“You were just trying to hide the paper.”
“That proves nothing.”
My father held up the deed.
“It proves Sarah’s signature appears on a document transferring her property.”
I stared at the page.
“I never signed anything.”
Silence.
Dad looked at Ryan.
Ryan looked at me.
Then I understood.
The beating wasn’t only about getting my house.
Something had already happened to it.
The papers Ryan wanted me to sign must have been meant to cover whatever he had done before.
“Ryan,” I whispered. “Did you forge my signature?”
He laughed.
“You sign things all the time.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Ryan’s attention snapped toward the window.
Dad stepped between him and the hallway.
“You’re not leaving.”
Ryan gave him a cold smile.
“You think you know your daughter’s finances better than her husband?”
“I know she says she never signed that deed.”
“People forget.”
“I don’t forget signing away my home!” I shouted.
The effort sent pain through my ribs.
Dad immediately turned toward me.
“Don’t move.”
Ryan started walking toward the back door.
Dad blocked him again.
“Get out of my way.”
“No.”
Ryan’s voice dropped.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“You beat my daughter.”
“She’s my wife.”
Dad stared at him.
“And that sentence is exactly why I hope they put you in a cell tonight.”
The sirens stopped outside.
A moment later, two officers entered through the damaged front door.
Everything happened quickly after that.
One officer stayed with me.
The other separated Ryan and Dad.
I told them what happened.
I showed them the bruises.
I told them about the mop.
Ryan denied everything.
“She attacked me first.”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“With what?”
He didn’t answer.
The officer photographed my injuries.
Another officer bagged the mop.
When Ryan realized they were taking him into custody, his confidence finally cracked.
“You’re arresting me because she’s crying?”
The officer put his hands behind his back.
“We’re arresting you based on the evidence and statements we have right now.”
Ryan looked at me.
His eyes were full of hate.
“You’re going to regret this.”
Dad immediately stepped forward.
The officer stopped him.
Ryan smiled.
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
“Ask your father about Fairmont.”
Dad froze.
So did I.
Ryan noticed.
His smile widened.
“There it is.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Ryan was led toward the hallway.
He twisted around one last time.
“Ask Daddy why he knows that name.”
Then he was gone.
I looked at my father.
He wasn’t watching Ryan anymore.
He was staring at the deed.
“Dad?”
He didn’t answer.
“Do you know Fairmont Residential Holdings?”
His silence scared me.
“Dad.”
Finally, he looked at me.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
He sat down slowly.
For the first time since he arrived, my father looked afraid.
“Sarah, there are things about that house I never told you.”
I stared at him.
“What things?”
He looked toward the officers.
Then lowered his voice.
“When your mother and I divorced, that property wasn’t just supposed to become your home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It was supposed to protect you.”
“From what?”
He closed his eyes.
“From your mother’s family.”
I thought I had heard him wrong.
“My mother?”
Dad nodded.
“And Fairmont Residential Holdings belonged to them.”
I forgot about the pain for a second.
My mother had died seven years earlier.
At least, that was what I had been told.
I stared at Dad.
“Belonged?”
He swallowed.
“Sarah, there’s something else.”
I felt cold.
“What?”
He reached for my hand.
I pulled it away.
“Just tell me.”
May you like
My father looked me directly in the eyes.
“Your mother isn’t dead.”
