Chapter 3: What the Envelope Said
Jasmine waited until the house went completely quiet.
She counted twenty minutes after Jessica's bedroom door clicked shut.
Then she walked downstairs in the dark, one hand trailing the wall.
The envelope was still there.
She picked it up.
The return address read: Hargrove & Associates — Family Law.
Her fingers were already shaking before she pulled out the papers inside.
She unfolded them slowly.
Three pages, dense with legal language.
She scanned the first page.
Then the second.
Then she had to sit down because her legs stopped working properly.
It was a property transfer agreement.
The house — her mother's house, the one Jasmine had grown up in, the one her mother had picked out the curtains for and painted the kitchen yellow — was being transferred out of David's sole name.
Into joint ownership.
David and Jessica.
The date at the bottom was four months ago.
Jasmine sat at the kitchen table for a long time without moving.
The papers were in her lap.
The clock above the stove read 1:14 a.m.
She thought about her mother.
She had passed when Jasmine was eleven.
David had never remarried for years afterward.
He had told Jasmine once, standing in this same kitchen, that the house was hers.
That it would always be hers.
That her mother had wanted that.
She put the papers back in the envelope.
Walked back upstairs.
Closed her door.
She didn't sleep.
By seven in the morning, she heard David's alarm go off down the hall.
She heard him move around, heard the shower run, heard the familiar sounds of him getting ready for work.
She waited until she heard his footsteps on the stairs.
Then she followed him down.
He was pouring coffee when she walked into the kitchen.
She set the envelope on the counter in front of him.
He looked at it.
Then at her.
"You need to tell me what this is," she said.
His hand stopped moving.
"Jasmine—"
"Dad.
Please.
Just tell me."
He set the coffee mug down slowly.
He didn't look at the envelope.
He looked at the window.
"It's not what it looks like."
"It looks like you signed the house over to her."
"It's joint ownership.
It's not the same thing."
"She threatened me last night," Jasmine said.
"She came to my room and told me the house has her name on it.
She said she has friends who know how these things work." She paused.
"Did you know she said that to me?"
David turned around.
His face changed.
"She came to your room?"
"After you went to bed.
She said she knows things about you.
Things that could change everything." Jasmine watched him carefully.
"What does that mean, Dad?
What does she know?"
He was quiet for too long.
"Dad."
"I'll handle it," he said.
"That's not an answer."
"Jasmine, I said I'll handle it."
She picked the envelope up off the counter and held it in front of him.
"She used this to threaten me.
That means it's already not handled." Her voice was steady but her chest hurt.
"I need to know if this house is still mine."
David opened his mouth.
Then the kitchen door swung open.
Jessica walked in, already dressed, already smiling, a coffee cup in her hand like nothing had happened the night before.
She looked at the envelope in Jasmine's hand.
The smile didn't disappear.
It just changed shape.
"Good morning," she said.
May you like
And something in the way she said it told Jasmine that Jessica had known exactly where that envelope was.
And had left it there on purpose.
