Chapter 3
I forgot about the pain in my throat.
“What do you mean, my house?”
Laura placed the papers flat on the dining table.
“There’s a reference to an existing lien.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It should be.”
“My mortgage was paid off two years ago.”
“I know.”
Dad had helped me understand every document when I bought the house at twenty-eight.
I had saved for years.
My grandmother left me part of her estate.
I used that inheritance as the down payment and worked until I could pay off the remaining mortgage.
The house wasn’t just property.
It was proof that I could build something entirely my own.
Daniel knew that.
He knew exactly what it meant to me.
Laura pulled out her phone.
“I need to verify this.”
Patricia was still standing near the doorway.
Officer Ramirez’s partner prevented her from following Daniel outside.
“You can’t keep me here,” Patricia snapped.
“No one is keeping you here,” the officer said. “But you’re not interfering with an arrest.”
Patricia grabbed her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
She walked toward the front door.
Then stopped beside me.
“This could have been easy.”
I stared at her.
“What did you do?”
She leaned closer.
“You should have signed.”
Nathan stepped between us.
“Get out.”
Patricia smiled at him.
“You Carters always think you can bully people.”
Nathan pointed to the door.
“Out.”
She left.
Dad turned immediately.
“Nathan, have someone watch where she goes.”
Nathan nodded and stepped outside.
I looked at Dad.
“You have people following her?”
“I have people documenting what happens next.”
“Dad.”
His eyes softened.
“You called me because your husband was choking you. I’m not taking chances.”
A paramedic approached again.
“Ms. Carter, we really need to transport you.”
I didn’t want to go.
Not while my house might somehow have been used as collateral for a loan I never approved.
But Laura looked at me.
“If Daniel forged something, the evidence will still exist after you get checked.”
“Forged?”
Her silence answered me.
My stomach sank.
At the hospital, the doctor documented the bruising.
Photographs were taken.
I hated every second of it.
The lights were too bright.
The room was too quiet.
My father sat beside the bed while Nathan paced near the door.
Laura made calls in the hallway.
By the time she came back in, she looked furious.
“That bad?” Dad asked.
“Worse.”
My hands went cold.
Laura closed the door.
“Eight months ago, a home-equity line of credit was opened against the property.”
“How much?”
“Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
Nathan stopped pacing.
Dad leaned forward.
“That’s nearly the full available equity.”
Laura nodded.
I couldn’t speak.
Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
I repeated the number silently because it didn’t feel real.
“Who signed?”
“You.”
“No.”
“The paperwork says you did.”
“I didn’t.”
“I believe you.”
“Then how?”
Laura pulled up a scanned document on her tablet.
She handed it to me.
My name was there.
Emily Carter Mercer.
My signature appeared beneath it.
It looked almost perfect.
Almost.
Except I knew my own hand.
“That’s not mine.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Your E is wrong.”
I looked at her.
She smiled faintly.
“You sign every Christmas card your father sends my office.”
Dad muttered, “Laura.”
“What? I notice things.”
I looked back at the document.
The forged signature made me nauseous.
“Where did the money go?”
“We’re tracing it.”
Nathan swore.
Dad’s voice remained frighteningly calm.
“Who notarized it?”
“A notary named Sandra Keene.”
“Do we know her?”
Laura hesitated.
“Yes.”
Something in her tone made me look up.
“Who is she?”
“Patricia’s cousin.”
I closed my eyes.
Nathan slammed his palm against the wall.
“Son of a—”
“Nathan,” Dad warned.
“No, Dad. Daniel forged her signature, used his mother’s cousin to notarize it, and borrowed almost half a million dollars against Emily’s house.”
“We don’t yet know who forged it.”
“We know.”
Laura’s phone buzzed.
She looked down.
Then her expression changed.
“What?”
She didn’t answer.
“Laura.”
She turned the screen toward us.
“The money didn’t stay in one account.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was distributed within forty-eight hours.”
She scrolled.
“One hundred thousand went to a company called Mercer Holdings.”
“That’s Daniel.”
“Do you know the company?”
“No.”
“Another hundred and twenty thousand went to Patricia.”
My mouth fell open.
Nathan laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“And the rest?”
“Multiple transfers.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Dad stood.
“Find out.”
Laura nodded.
My father walked to the window.
I watched him in silence.
Dad had commanded hundreds of people during his military career.
But he had never tried to command my life.
When I chose Daniel, Dad didn’t like him.
He never said that directly.
He simply asked questions.
Does he respect your work?
Does he make you feel safe?
Does he take responsibility when he makes mistakes?
I had laughed.
“Dad, you sound like you’re interviewing him for security clearance.”
He had smiled.
“I’m interviewing him for my daughter.”
I thought Dad was being overprotective.
Now I wanted to go back three years and listen harder.
“Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t trust him?” I asked.
Dad turned.
“Because you loved him.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes, it is.”
My eyes burned.
“You knew?”
“I knew something about him bothered me.”
“What?”
“He always wanted to know what you owned.”
I looked at him.
Dad came back to the bed.
“The first time I met him, he asked about the value of my property before he asked about your childhood.”
“I thought he was making conversation.”
“So did you.”
“And you didn’t?”
“I hoped I was wrong.”
Tears slipped down my face.
Dad took my hand.
“I would rather have been wrong.”
A nurse entered.
“Ms. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“There’s someone asking to see you.”
Dad stood immediately.
“Who?”
The nurse checked her clipboard.
“Your mother-in-law.”
“No,” Nathan said.
But I sat straighter.
“Let her in.”
Dad looked at me.
“Emily.”
“I want to hear what she has to say.”
Patricia entered thirty seconds later.
She had changed.
Not clothes.
Something else.
Her earlier confidence was gone.
Her hands trembled around her purse.
She looked from Dad to Nathan to Laura.
Then at me.
“Can we speak alone?”
“No,” I said.
“This is family business.”
“They are my family.”
Her jaw tightened.
“You’re making a terrible mistake.”
“You told me the bank thinks Daniel owns my house.”
“I was angry.”
“Was I supposed to sign those papers because the loan is in default?”
Her face flickered.
There it was.
The answer.
Laura stepped forward.
“Is the loan in default?”
Patricia glared at her.
“I’m not talking to you.”
“You just did.”
Patricia turned back to me.
“Emily, you need to understand Daniel was under pressure.”
“He forged my signature.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Did you take one hundred and twenty thousand dollars?”
She went silent.
“Did you?”
Her expression hardened again.
“He owed me.”
“For what?”
“Everything I sacrificed raising him.”
Nathan muttered, “Unbelievable.”
Patricia pointed at him.
“You stay out of this.”
I swung my legs off the bed.
Pain shot through my neck, but I stood.
“Where is the money?”
Patricia stared at me.
“Some of it is gone.”
“Where?”
“He invested.”
“In what?”
She said nothing.
Laura suddenly asked, “Did Daniel tell you the lender had started foreclosure proceedings?”
My heart stopped.
Patricia’s face answered before her mouth did.
“What foreclosure?” I whispered.
Laura turned sharply.
“You knew?”
Patricia began backing toward the door.
“Ask your husband.”
I grabbed the bedrail.
“Patricia.”
She stopped.
“When?”
Her lips tightened.
“When what?”
“When are they trying to take my house?”
She looked at me for several seconds.
Then said quietly:
“Friday.”
I stared at her.
“Tomorrow?”
“No.”
She swallowed.
May you like
“This Friday.”
Three days away.
