Chapter 5 - Friday Was the Deadline.
Daniel carried the green folder into his home office and locked the door behind Emily.
Margaret pounded on it from the hallway.
"You cannot lock me out of family business!"
Daniel did not answer.
Emily sat in the leather chair opposite his desk.
Her hands had started shaking now that the immediate danger had passed.
Daniel noticed.
"Did she hurt you?"
"Not badly."
"That is not an answer."
Emily looked at him.
"She has grabbed me before."
Daniel went still.
"When?"
"Three times that I remember."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Emily laughed without humor.
"I did."
Daniel stared at her.
"You told me she got in your face."
"I told you she grabbed my arm in the laundry room."
He looked down.
Emily remembered his answer that night.
Mom gets physical when she's emotional.
She doesn't mean anything by it.
Daniel covered his mouth with one hand.
"I said that."
"Yes."
"God."
"I stopped telling you after that."
He looked as if he wanted to apologize, but Emily raised a hand.
"Not yet."
Daniel nodded.
"Okay."
Emily spread the documents across the desk.
"We need to understand Friday."
The draft divorce petition, forged banking authorization, property documents, and transaction history formed a pattern.
Daniel opened his laptop.
"M.H. Property Services is registered to my mother."
Emily leaned closer.
"Check the mailing address."
Daniel did.
The company address belonged to a commercial mailbox on the other side of Nashville.
The incorporation date was eleven months earlier.
Emily felt another piece click into place.
"She started this before she moved in with us."
Margaret had arrived nine months ago after claiming a burst pipe made her condo unlivable.
The repairs were supposedly taking forever.
Daniel had insisted his mother could stay in their guest suite until everything was fixed.
Emily had agreed because she wanted to be kind.
Two weeks became two months.
Two months became nine.
Margaret gradually took over the kitchen, the household calendar, the staff instructions, and eventually Daniel's attention.
Daniel searched county property records.
His face changed.
"Her condo was sold ten months ago."
Emily stared at the screen.
"She told us it was under repair."
"She sold it before she moved in."
The sale price was just over eight hundred thousand dollars.
Daniel clicked through the public filing.
The proceeds had been sent to a trust account controlled by a law firm neither of them recognized.
Emily wrote down the firm's name.
"Call them."
Daniel hesitated.
"It's Sunday."
"Then email them."
He did.
Margaret's pounding stopped outside the office.
The silence felt worse.
Daniel stood and checked the hallway through the small security camera on his phone.
Margaret was gone.
"Where is she?"
Emily's pulse accelerated.
Daniel switched to another camera.
The kitchen was empty.
The foyer was empty.
Then he opened the garage feed.
Margaret was at Emily's car.
She had the driver's door open.
"What is she doing?"
Daniel ran out of the office.
Emily grabbed the folder and followed.
By the time they reached the garage, Margaret was backing away from the car with something in her hand.
Emily recognized it immediately.
Her spare house key.
Daniel blocked the garage exit.
"Put it down."
Margaret smiled.
"I was taking back what belongs to this family."
Emily's eyes went to the small black pouch in Margaret's other hand.
"What's in that?"
Margaret clutched it tighter.
Daniel reached for it.
Margaret pulled away, but the zipper opened.
Three credit cards and a passport fell onto the concrete.
The passport belonged to Emily.
Daniel stared at his mother.
"Why do you have my wife's passport?"
Margaret did not answer.
Emily picked it up and saw a folded itinerary beneath it.
A flight had been reserved for Thursday night.
One passenger.
Emily Hayes.
Destination: Toronto.
The ticket had been booked with points from Daniel's account.
Emily looked at Margaret.
"You were trying to make it look like I left him."
Margaret's expression finally cracked.
"You were going to leave eventually."
Emily held up the ticket.
"So you decided to do it for me?"
Daniel bent down and picked up one of the credit cards.
It was in Emily's name.
She had never seen it before.
The balance printed on the statement tucked behind it was forty-three thousand dollars.
May you like
Friday was no longer just a deadline.
It was the day Margaret planned to make Emily disappear on paper.
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