Chapter 5
Karen arrived in twenty minutes.
She did not knock gently.
She knocked like the door owed her money.
Behind her came a private investigator named Alicia Grant and two uniformed officers.
Daniel’s face drained.
“You called police?”
I said, “You forged my signature.”
“You’re my wife.”
Alicia looked at him.
“That is not a defense. It is a confession of entitlement.”
One officer separated Daniel from us.
The other took photographs.
My cheek.
My wrist.
The folder.
The turned-down wedding photo.
The moving boxes.
The missing vase.
Madison gave a statement at the dining table.
Her voice shook.
“Daniel told me Emily had agreed to a quiet divorce. He said she wanted cash and the lake house would go to us because she hated it after her mother died.”
I closed my eyes.
He had used my grief as legal cover.
Madison continued.
“He said she signed the deed. He asked me to witness because she didn’t want to deal with strangers. I didn’t see her sign.”
Karen asked, “Did Daniel tell you to come here today?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Madison looked at me.
“He said I should start moving small things in. He wanted Emily to feel it was already over if she came home.”
My stomach turned.
Daniel had not just planned fraud.
He had planned humiliation.
May you like
He wanted me to walk into replacement.
To feel so erased that I would stop fighting.
