Chapter 13 - Melissa's Version.
Melissa answered Ethan's call on the fourth ring.
She sounded terrified before he even mentioned the video.
"I knew this was going to happen," she said.
Ethan put the call on speaker.
Claire and Connor sat beside him in the study.
"What did you know?" Ethan asked.
Melissa began crying quietly.
"Aunt Margaret said you approved everything."
"I approved thirty-one thousand dollars in design work?"
"She said it was part of a renovation budget."
"Why were you in my house last week?"
Silence.
"Melissa."
"She asked me to bring revised trust pages."
Claire felt her hands go cold.
Connor leaned forward.
"Who revised them?"
"A document service."
"A lawyer?"
"No."
That mattered.
Margaret had made the papers look formal without putting them through an attorney who might ask inconvenient questions.
Melissa continued.
"She told me Claire had agreed to move part of the house into a family trust."
"Did you see Claire agree?" Ethan asked.
"No."
"Did you see me agree?"
"No."
"Then why did you keep billing us?"
Melissa's breathing shook through the speaker.
"Because she told me you wanted it done before your birthday."
Claire looked toward the blue folder.
"And the twelve thousand?"
Melissa hesitated.
"That wasn't for furniture."
Connor's expression sharpened.
"What was it for?"
"A deposit."
"On what?"
Melissa's answer changed everything again.
"A condo for Aunt Margaret."
Ethan stared at the phone.
Margaret had sold her old condo eight months earlier.
She had claimed she was still searching for the right place.
In reality, she had selected a luxury unit downtown six weeks ago.
She simply had not wanted to use her own money for the deposit.
"Why would M. Vale Interiors receive a condo deposit?" Connor asked.
"It wasn't supposed to stay with me."
Melissa spoke faster now.
"I was supposed to transfer it to the property broker as a project expense."
"So the money would look like renovation spending first," Connor said.
Melissa went quiet.
"I didn't understand that part until yesterday."
Ethan looked at Claire.
The original three thousand dollars had been the first portion of the planned twelve-thousand-dollar deposit.
Margaret had been financing her move out of their house using their son's emergency account while simultaneously trying to acquire a legal interest in the house she planned to leave.
She wanted both security and control.
Claire finally understood why nothing had ever been enough for her.
A room was not enough.
Respect was not enough.
Help was not enough.
Margaret needed leverage.
"Will you give Connor every invoice, message, and instruction she sent you?" Ethan asked.
Melissa hesitated.
"Will I be in trouble?"
"I can't promise what the bank will decide."
"I didn't know about Claire's account."
"Then prove what you did know."
Melissa agreed.
Within twenty minutes, Connor's inbox filled with screenshots.
Most were ordinary design discussions.
One was not.
Margaret had written it three days earlier.
Once Ethan signs, Claire cannot force me out without a trustee review.
Beneath it was another message.
After that, I will make sure the board understands who has been destabilizing him.
Claire read the line twice.
Margaret had planned to trap herself inside the house legally and push Claire outside the family socially.
Then Connor opened the final screenshot.
It showed a message Margaret had sent that morning from the hotel.
Destroy our chat history.
May you like
Melissa had not obeyed.
The House She Thought She Owned
