This time I answered.
Her voice came through sharp and triumphant.
“Tell your rent-a-cop to open the gate.”
“There is no lease.”
The triumph disappeared for half a second.
Then she laughed.
“Oh my God, Bella.
Stop being dramatic.
Mom knows about it.”
“Mom signed my name?”
Silence.
Then Paige changed direction.
“You said we could use the house whenever we needed it.”
“No.
I let you visit.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
Behind her, people were moving closer.
I could hear voices through the phone.
Paige lowered hers.
“I need the place for a while.
That’s all.”
There it was.
Not we.
I.
“How long is a while?” I asked.
“You saw the paper.”
“Six months?”
“You’re never there full-time.”
I looked at Ethan.
He closed his eyes for one second, the expression of a man hearing the exact sentence he had predicted weeks before.
Paige continued before I could answer.
“You have the Jacksonville house.
You have two incomes.
You’re a surgeon, Bella.
I don’t understand why you need to hoard an empty property while your sister needs somewhere to stay.”
The cruelty of it was almost impressive.
She had planned an invasion, forged permission, filled the driveway with witnesses, and somehow I was selfish for owning the house she wanted.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
“I knew you’d say no.”
That answer settled something inside me.
Not because it surprised me.
Because it removed the last excuse.
This was not a misunderstanding.
Paige knew the answer and built a plan designed to make my answer irrelevant.
On the monitor, one of the movers spoke to the guard.
He looked uncomfortable now.
The second mover began returning a box to the SUV.
I asked Paige, “What did you tell the moving company?”
“That I was moving.”
“Into my house.”
“Our family house.”
“My house.”
She exhaled loudly.
“This is exactly why nobody can talk to you anymore.”
I almost smiled.
