Chapter 4 - The Unraveling Partnership
When the pocket doors slid open ten minutes later, Daniel was waiting in the foyer, his face dark with fury. Behind him near the front entrance, Jade Prescott was already clutching her coat, looking desperately toward the exit.
“You’ve lost your minds, both of you,” Daniel snarled, stepping into my personal space. “I don’t know what fairy tales my mother just fed you, Maggie, but tomorrow morning I’m filing for emergency guardianship. You’re mentally unstable. A judge will look at your medical records and hand me full custody of this child and this estate before lunch.”
I didn’t back away. For months, the fear of his anger had kept me silent, walking on eggshells while he carried on his sordid affair in five-star hotels. But sitting in that library, holding Harold’s trust in my hands, something fundamental had broken inside me—and reassembled into steel.
“You won’t file anything, Daniel,” I said calmly.
“Try me.”
“Jade,” I called out, looking past his shoulder.
The younger woman froze, one hand on the heavy brass doorknob.
“Before you let him drive you home,” I said, loud enough for her to hear clearly, “you should check your firm’s escrow accounts.”
Jade turned slowly. “What are you talking about?”
“Daniel told you he had secured a three-million-dollar private mezzanine loan to fund your architectural retainer, didn’t he? That’s why you signed on as the lead designer without a corporate retainer upfront.”
Jade’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
“Because the mail comes to this house,” I replied, pulling my phone from my pocket and tapping open a photo I had taken of a banking notice two days ago. “The loan wasn’t approved. Daniel forged your corporate registration number as a co-guarantor on a secondary bridge loan from a private lender in Jersey City. If his firm defaults—which it will on December first—the debt falls directly onto your LLC.”
Jade let out a sharp, horrified breath. She rounded on Daniel, her voice trembling with panic. “Daniel? Is that true? Did you use my license number on that filing?”
Daniel’s face drained of color. “Jade, shut up. Don’t listen to her, she’s trying to poison you against me—”
“Did you use my license?!” Jade screamed, all of her refined, quiet composure shattering in an instant.
Outside, blue and red flashing lights swept across the high leaded-glass windows of Hollis Manor. The gravel driveway crunched under the tires of two patrol cruisers.
Sheriff Arthur Reynolds, a broad-shouldered man who had gone to high school with Harold, stepped into the foyer without knocking, accompanied by a young deputy.
“Everything all right here, Rosemary?” Arthur asked, removing his Stetson. His eyes took in Daniel’s clenched fists and Jade’s tear-streaked face.
“Not entirely, Arthur,” Rosemary said calmly from behind me. “My son has become belligerent. We have asked him and his companion to vacate the premises for the evening.”
“This is my house!” Daniel roared, turning on the sheriff. “My name is Hollis!”
“Daniel,” Arthur said in a low, dangerous rumble. “Your name might be Hollis, but your mother owns the deed on file, and right now she’s telling you to leave. Now, you can walk out to your Audi voluntarily, or I can put steel bracelets on your wrists in front of your young lady friend here. Which is it going to be?”
Daniel looked around the grand entrance hall. He looked at his mother’s icy detachment. He looked at Jade, who was backing away from him as if he were radioactive. And finally, he looked at me.
“You’ll regret this, Maggie,” he hissed under his breath as the deputy escorted him toward the door. “You’ll be on the street with that kid before the new year.”
May you like
“The only person leaving this house tonight, Daniel,” I whispered back, “is you.”
***
