Claire sat upright.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
Robert exhaled unsteadily.
“I found paperwork inside her desk. Your name is on it.”
Daniel drove to his father’s house alone the following morning. Claire wanted answers, but after what had happened, she refused to bring Lily anywhere near Margaret. She stayed home, took the day off work, and kept watching the front window even though she knew Margaret had never visited without calling first.
Robert was waiting in the driveway.
Margaret’s car was gone.
Inside, the dining room appeared exactly as it had the previous day, except one chair remained crooked from when Daniel had pushed it backward.
Robert led his son into the study and shut the door.
“I should have stopped her,” he said.
Daniel’s jaw tightened. “Yesterday?”
“For years.”
Robert opened a drawer and placed a thick envelope on the desk.
Inside were bank statements, printed emails, and photocopies of documents.
Daniel recognized his mother’s tidy handwriting along the margins.
Robert explained that Margaret had managed most of their household finances for decades. He had trusted her.
Six months earlier, however, she started transferring money from their joint savings into an account under her name alone.
The total was nearly $84,000.
“That’s between you and Mom,” Daniel said. “What does it have to do with me?”
Robert pushed a document toward him.
It was an application for a home equity line of credit.
The property listed was Daniel and Claire’s house.
Daniel stared at the page.
“That’s impossible.”
The application was incomplete, but attached to it were copies of Daniel’s Social Security card, an old pay stub, a scan of his driver’s license, and a document carrying what appeared to be his signature.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“I never signed this.”
“I know,” Robert said.
Then he showed him an email Margaret had sent to a lending representative.
In it, she claimed Daniel was separating from his wife and temporarily living with his parents. She said he wanted to access equity before “marital complications” interfered.
Daniel read the sentence twice.
“She was trying to build a paper trail that Claire and I were splitting up.”
Robert nodded.
There was more.
Margaret had also contacted a family-law attorney for a consultation. Her notes indicated she believed that if Daniel separated from Claire, she could convince him to seek primary custody of Lily. She had written that Claire was “unstable,” “financially irresponsible,” and “not fit to raise Bennett.”
