Chapter 12 - What He Bought Yesterday
My father arrived in nine minutes.
He came through the front door wearing a brown field jacket over a dress shirt, his silver hair uncombed, like he had left wherever he was without asking permission from anyone.
For one second, I was eight years old again.
Then he saw Lily in my arms.
His face softened.
He did not hug me immediately.
That was my father.
He looked at me first, as if asking whether he had earned the right.
I stepped forward.
He held me with one arm and put the other hand carefully against Lily’s back.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“So am I.”
Daniel watched us from the far side of the room.
Dad released me and turned toward him.
No shouting.
No threats.
Just: “You forged my daughter’s signature.”
Daniel gave a tired smile. “Richard, spare me the righteous act.”
Dad ignored him and opened a folder.
Inside was a property record.
Harbor Ridge Development had purchased a building the day before.
Not a construction parcel.
Not a warehouse.
A vacant medical office building twenty miles away.
Purchase price: $1.2 million.
Seller: Mercer Family Services LLC.
I looked at Margaret.
“What is Mercer Family Services?”
She said nothing.
Dad answered. “A company owned by Margaret.”
Daniel’s eyes closed.
The room tilted.
Harbor Ridge, funded partly through a loan guaranteed with my forged signature, had bought Margaret’s property for $1.2 million.
“How much was it worth?” I asked.
Dana answered. “The appraisal we found says approximately $420,000.”
I stared at Margaret.
She had personally benefited by nearly eight hundred thousand dollars from a transaction backed by my trust.
Margaret finally snapped. “That building was undervalued.”
“By triple?” Dad asked.
She pointed at him. “You have always looked down on Daniel.”
“No,” Dad said. “I looked into Daniel.”
He removed one more sheet.
A wire transfer.
Yesterday afternoon, immediately after the sale closed, Margaret had sent $600,000 to an account in the Cayman Islands.
Daniel stared at the page.
And this time, his shock looked real.
“Mom,” he said.
Margaret’s face changed.
Daniel stepped toward her.
“What did you do?”
She backed away.
May you like
For the first time all day, I realized something terrifying.
Daniel might not know the whole plan either.
