“With the wrong signatures and a careless notary, they could try.”
I thought about my wife, Anne. The lake house had belonged to her before we married. She left it to me because she trusted me to keep it in the family. I had almost handed it to people who laughed about weaponizing her memory against me.
David reached for the phone.
“We need to revoke any pending authorization immediately. We also need to notify your bank, freeze major transfers, update your medical directive, and remove them as emergency contacts for now.”
Those words hurt more than I expected.
Remove them.
My children.
But then Ethan’s voice returned inside my head.
He still thinks we’re his family.
I looked at David.
“Do it,” I said.
By sunset, every door they had planned to walk through was locked.
Part 3
Ethan called me at 8:03 the next morning.
I knew the exact time because I was sitting at my kitchen table with cold coffee in front of me, watching his name flash across my phone.
I let it ring.
Then Marissa called.
Then Vanessa.
Then Ethan again.
At 9:10, all three of them arrived at my house.
I saw them through the front window: Ethan in a gray blazer, Vanessa holding a designer purse, Marissa wearing sunglasses even though the morning was cloudy. They looked annoyed, not concerned. That told me enough.
