Chapter 4: Daniel at the Door
Elena hurried toward the entryway, but I reached the door first.
A tall man stood on the porch with the velvet box in one hand and a folder in the other.
“Are you Daniel Mercer?”
He glanced past me and saw Elena.
“She told me you’d moved out.”
Elena pushed forward.
“Daniel, this is not a good time.”
“You said Martin knew about us.”
My name sounded strange in his mouth.
“About what, exactly?” I asked.
Daniel held out the watch.
“About the retreat.
About your separation.
About the money she said belonged to her.”
Elena tried to close the door.
Daniel put the folder against the frame.
“You lied to me too,” he said.
“Don’t stand there pretending you’re innocent.”
“I transferred my own savings into New Dawn Living.”
Megan appeared behind me.
“How much?”
“Forty thousand dollars.”
Elena’s expression changed.
“Daniel, we can discuss this privately.”
“No.
You’ve had six months of private discussions.”
He opened the folder and removed printed messages.
“She told me the house was already hers,” he said.
“She said Martin agreed to sign it over in the separation.”
“We are not separated,” I replied.
Daniel looked down at the watch.
“She asked me to meet her at the airport tomorrow morning.”
Sophie gripped the stair rail.
“You were leaving?”
Elena turned toward her.
“Only for a few days.”
“With my college money?”
“It wasn’t your money alone.
I contributed to that account.”
“Grandma left it to me,” Sophie said.
“Dad added to it.
You were only the custodian.”
Elena faced me.
“Martin, tell them what you said last winter.”
“What did I say?”
“You said, ‘Do whatever you need to keep us afloat.’”
She took out her phone and played a short audio clip.
My voice filled the hallway.
“Do whatever you need.
I can’t deal with this right now.”
Elena stopped the recording.
“There.
He authorized me.”
Daniel studied me.
Megan lowered her phone slightly.
“What were we discussing?” I asked.
Elena smiled for the first time that evening.
“The finances.”
“No,” Sophie whispered.
“You were discussing Grandma’s care.”
We all looked at her.
“I remember that call.
Dad was at the hospital.
Mom was supposed to arrange Grandma’s home nurse.”
Elena slid the phone into her pocket.
“You can’t prove that.”
Sophie’s chin trembled.
“You used Grandma’s final week to cover what you did?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
That sentence broke something.
Sophie sank onto the bottom stair and covered her face.
“I worked for four years,” she said.
“I earned scholarships.
I skipped trips because you said college mattered.
Was any of that real to you?”
I knelt beside her, but she pulled away.
“You checked the account every month, Dad.
How didn’t you see?”
“I trusted the statements your mother showed me.”
“You trusted her more than you protected me.”
Her words left me kneeling with my hand suspended between us.
Daniel placed the watch on the table.
Then he crouched several feet from Sophie.
“I can’t restore what she took tonight,” he said, “but I can give you every message, transfer, and recording she sent me.
I won’t hide a single thing.”
Elena stared at him.
“If you do that, you lose your investment.”
“Maybe.”
“You’ll lose the property too.”
“I’d rather lose money than help you take her future.”
Daniel unlocked his phone and handed it to Megan.
Elena lunged for it.
Megan stepped back, and the phone slipped from her hand.
It struck the floor and the screen went black.
Elena smiled.
Then Megan calmly raised her own phone.
“Everything was already uploading,” she said.
Elena’s smile vanished, but a second knock sounded at the door.
A man in a gray suit stood outside holding a briefcase.
Elena exhaled.
May you like
“Martin,” she said, “meet Victor—my attorney and my brother.
He filed the house transfer this morning.”
