Chapter 4: Things That Could Change Everything
Jessica set her coffee cup on the counter and looked at David.
"You told her?"
"I didn't tell her anything," David said.
"Then why is she holding that?"
"Because I found it," Jasmine said.
"You left it right there." She pointed to the spot on the counter.
"You didn't hide it.
You left it where I'd see it."
Jessica tilted her head slightly, as if considering this.
"Papers get left places," she said.
"That doesn't mean anything."
"You came to my room last night and told me the house had your name on it," Jasmine said.
"After my father defended me.
After he told you to back down." She kept her voice even.
"You weren't warning me.
You were showing me what you have."
David looked at Jessica.
"Is that true?
You went to her room?"
"I checked on her," Jessica said.
"She seemed upset.
I was being kind."
"You told her you have friends who know how these things work," David said quietly.
Not a question.
Jessica's expression didn't move.
"I was trying to help her understand the reality of adult life," she said.
"That was all."
"What reality?" Jasmine said.
"That you could have me removed from my own home?"
"I didn't say that."
"What did you say, Jessica?" David's voice had gone flat.
"Exactly.
What did you say to my daughter at midnight while I was asleep?"
Jessica turned toward him.
Her posture shifted.
Something calculated moved behind her eyes.
"David," she said, softer now.
"You know how complicated things have been.
You know what we discussed.
I was trying to prepare her, not frighten her.
You and I agreed this house needed to reflect our marriage.
That's not a secret.
That's what married people do."
"We agreed to joint ownership as a formality," David said.
"We did not agree that you would use it to threaten my daughter."
"I wasn't threatening anyone."
"Then why," Jasmine said, "did you tell me you know things about my father?
Things that could change everything?" She looked at her father.
"What does she mean, Dad?
What is she holding over you?"
The kitchen went silent.
David didn't answer immediately.
He looked at the table.
His jaw tightened.
Jessica spoke first.
"Your father made some financial decisions a few years ago that weren't entirely straightforward," she said.
Her voice was careful.
Almost gentle.
"I helped him.
I protected him.
That's what a wife does." She paused.
"He knows I would never use that against him.
We're a family."
"You just used it against me," Jasmine said.
"I was giving you context."
"You were telling me to be afraid of you."
Jessica picked up her coffee cup.
She took a slow sip.
"I think you're very young," she said, "and you're reading too much into a conversation that happened at midnight when everyone was tired and emotional." She looked at David.
"I think we should all get back to our mornings."
She walked out of the kitchen.
Her heels clicked down the hall.
David stood with his hands on the counter, staring at the space where she had been standing.
"Dad," Jasmine said.
"What financial decisions?
What is she talking about?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"It was a long time ago," he said.
"Before you were old enough to understand."
"I'm nineteen."
"I know."
"Tell me."
He looked at her.
His expression was tired in a way that went deeper than one bad night.
"Not here," he said.
"Not now." He straightened up.
"But I promise you — I will fix this."
He left for work forty minutes later.
Jasmine sat at the kitchen table with the envelope still in her hands.
She turned it over once.
Then she took out her phone and typed the name from the return address into the search bar.
Hargrove & Associates — Family Law.
The second result was a news article from three years ago.
The headline read: *Local Attorney Disbarred Following Investigation into Fraudulent Property Transfers.*
The attorney's name was Gerald Hargrove.
Jasmine read the article twice.
Then she read it a third time.
May you like
The documents in her hands had been drawn up by a disbarred lawyer.
Which meant that whatever Jessica thought she owned — she might not own at all.
