Chapter 2: The Doorbell They Never Expected
Marcus laughed first.
A short, sharp sound.
"You called some people," he repeated, like it was a joke.
"You're a seventy-three-year-old woman with a rental property and a bleeding forehead.
Who exactly did you call, Dorothy?"
I kept smiling.
Marissa stepped closer.
"Sign the papers.
Tonight.
Or we file tomorrow and you lose everything anyway."
Tyler still hadn't moved from the doorway.
Then the doorbell rang.
Nobody expected that.
Diane turned.
Marcus turned.
Even Marissa turned.
I didn't.
Tyler opened the door slowly, and two men in dark jackets stepped inside.
One carried a folder.
The other held a small recording device.
"Mrs.
Dorothy Hale?" the first one said.
"That's me," I said.
Marissa's voice cracked.
"Who are these people?"
I looked at Marcus — the lawyer, the man who had drafted every one of those papers — and I said,
"You should recognize them.
You went to law school with one of them."
Marcus's face went the color of old paper.
The man with the folder opened it and placed a single photograph on the table next to the transfer papers.
Marissa looked down.
Then she looked at her mother.
Diane sat down very slowly, like her legs had stopped working.
"That's not possible," Marissa whispered.
"That was sealed."
"Not anymore," I said.
What was in that photograph — and what had Diane been hiding for years — was about to change everything in that room.
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What Grandma uncovered about Diane is more shocking than anyone in that room was prepared for.
