My Stepmother Gave Me 24 Hours to Leave. She Had No Idea Where I Was Going.

Dad gave the rental company a written statement that the new signature wasn’t his. Nina helped him gather copies of the messages Gwendolyn had sent on his behalf.

I watched him work at the dining room table. He looked older than he had a week earlier. Once, he glanced up at the doorway to my old bedroom.

“You can take your things back in there,” he said.

“I got the things I need.”

He nodded, hurt passing over his face. I couldn’t make that answer easier for him.

Chloe came downstairs carrying Mom’s blue curtains, neatly folded.

“I found these under the bed,” she said. “I should’ve asked before I moved in.”

“Thanks.”

She set them on the table. “I thought you didn’t need anything from this house because you had that other place. I didn’t understand why you left so fast.”

“I left because Dad sat right there and let her tell me to go.”

Chloe looked toward him. “I heard him.”

Dad’s mouth tightened. “So did I.”

Gwendolyn returned that afternoon. Dad asked her to sit with us. Nina joined by phone.

Faced with the lender’s records, Gwendolyn admitted she had submitted the first loan application. She insisted she expected me to sign once Dad talked me into it. She also admitted sending the rental agreement, though she claimed Dad had approved the business plan.

“I thought we could pay everything back,” she said.

Dad asked, “Why did you tell me Paige had agreed?”

Gwendolyn stared at the table.

“Because I knew she’d say no.”

There it was. No shouting. No clever excuse. Just the answer she had been avoiding.

Chloe pushed back her chair. “You let me fight with her over a bedroom while you were doing all this?”

“The bedroom was a separate issue,” Gwendolyn said.

“No,” Chloe answered. “You wanted the room for the listing.”

Gwendolyn looked at Dad, waiting for him to defend her. He stayed silent.

This time, his silence cost her.

Then Nina’s voice came through the phone. “Samuel, I need to ask one more thing. Have you ever signed anything transferring your interest in the house?”