Chapter 2: Move Faster
Part 2 — continued in comments 👇
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I didn't sleep.
I sat at my desk until sunrise going through every file I still had.
The deed was gone.
But I still had the mortgage statements, the closing email chain, and a photo I had taken of the original paperwork the day I signed.
Then my phone buzzed.
A text from Elena.
At 5:47 in the morning.
*"You should have just paid for the wedding.
This didn't have to happen."*
I stared at that message for a long time.
She knew.
She had known before Dad smiled.
Before Mom went quiet.
This wasn't a reaction to last night.
This was already in motion.
I called her immediately.
"What did you do, Elena?"
She paused just long enough to tell me everything I needed to know.
"I didn't do anything.
Dad handled it.
You were never going to use this house for anything that mattered anyway."
"It's my house."
"Claire." Her voice was almost gentle.
"Just talk to Dad in the morning.
He's not trying to hurt you.
He just wants what's fair."
I hung up.
Fair.
Three years of free rent, groceries, utilities, and patience — and my father had decided the fair outcome was to take the house.
Then I heard something I wasn't supposed to hear.
Footsteps in the hallway.
A door closing quietly.
And then my father's voice, low and steady, on a phone call he clearly believed I couldn't hear.
He said a name I didn't recognize.
And then he said: *"She found the safe.
Move faster."*
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What Claire uncovered next put everything at risk — her home, her company, and something she never expected to lose.
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The truth is worse than you think.
