“Did you know she intended to use the house for the hospital project?”
“I knew she called it your base.
Nothing more.”
He turned to Mary.
“Tell me what you submitted.”
She stepped close enough to whisper, but everyone could still hear her.
“I said the property was available to us.”
“Did you list it as family-owned collateral?”
“It is family-owned.”
“No,” I said.
“It is owned by one member of the family.
Me.”
James closed his eyes.
The hospital was supposed to be his great project.
At dinner, Mary had presented it as proof that her life mattered more than mine.
Now her attempt to seize my house threatened the very plan she had used to justify it.
“I need copies of everything you submitted,” James said.
Mary grabbed his wrist.
“Do not take her side.”
“This is not a side.
You gave false information to people financing a hospital.”
“I was going to fix the paperwork after she signed.”
“You never had her agreement.”
“I had Mom’s.”
James looked at Mom.
Mom said nothing.
He pulled his arm away from Mary.
“Take the truck back to our apartment,” he told the movers.
“Everything.”
Mary’s face hardened.
“You do not give orders to me.”
“I am not ordering you.
I am protecting a project you may already have damaged.”
She followed him into the driveway, lowering her voice as she argued.
He did not lower his.
For the first time, she could not control how the scene looked to the people watching.
Inside, Mom bent to pick up the notice she had knocked onto the floor.
Her hand trembled.
“You cannot throw your father and me away,” she said.
“I am giving you thirty days.”
“Where are we supposed to go?”
“That was the question I asked at dinner.”
She looked at me with open hatred.
“You planned this.”
“No.
You did.
I only responded.”
The locksmith changed the lock on my bedroom first.
Then he replaced the front and back locks while the officers supervised.
Mom and Dad received temporary keys that would work during the notice period.
Mary received nothing.
The lawyer had advised me not to move back immediately.
The assault investigation was active, and emotions were high.
I stayed in a small furnished apartment across town while the legal process moved forward.
For the first few nights, I barely slept.
Every sound woke me.
