Chapter 5 - The Gift Under the Tree
Sheriff Dalton stepped between Sarah and the door.
“Mrs. Parker, do you want these women inside?”
“No.”
Sarah stared at me. “I’m your daughter-in-law.”
“And she’s my mother,” Jason said from behind me. “You forged her name.”
Sarah’s face changed.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
“You don’t understand what I was trying to do.”
“Then explain it from the porch,” I said.
Brenda pointed at the silver package. “That belongs to my daughter.”
“It was abandoned in my home.”
Sheriff Dalton raised a hand. “Nobody touches anything until we determine whether it may be evidence.”
That frightened them.
Brenda stepped backward.
Sarah didn’t.
“This family was falling apart,” she said to Jason. “I was trying to save us.”
“By stealing my mother’s house?”
“It isn’t stealing if it was going to be yours.”
I felt something inside me harden.
Jason stared at his wife. “My mother isn’t dead.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
Sarah looked toward the package again.
Sheriff Dalton noticed.
“What’s in the box?” he asked.
“No idea,” Sarah said too quickly.
He carried it inside after photographing every side.
With my permission, he cut the ribbon.
Beneath the silver paper was a wooden frame.
Inside the frame sat an architectural rendering of my cabin. At the bottom, in gold lettering, were the words:
THE COLLINS-PARKER MOUNTAIN RETREAT
ESTABLISHED 2026
Behind the rendering was a folder.
Michael opened it with gloved hands.
The first page was an application for a home-equity loan against the cabin.
The requested amount was $310,000.
The second page was a proposed rental-management contract naming Sarah as the authorized owner’s representative.
The third was a contractor’s estimate to add four luxury guest suites.
They were not planning to inherit my home someday.
They were planning to borrow against it immediately, remodel it, and turn it into a family business.
Michael examined the final page.
“This loan appointment is scheduled for December twenty-sixth.”
That was why Brenda wanted me to cancel the property manager.
They needed the cabin empty.
Jason walked onto the porch.
“Tell me you didn’t do this.”
Sarah lifted her chin. “I did it for us.”
“You did it for your debts.”
“For our future!”
“You used my mother’s identity.”
Brenda cut in. “Jason, stop pretending you’re innocent. You signed the papers.”
“I didn’t know what they were.”
“Being stupid isn’t a defense.”
Jason flinched.
I stepped forward, but Sarah smiled at him.
“She’s right,” Sarah said. “Your signature is real. Mine isn’t on the forged deed.”
Jason stared at her.
Then he understood.
If the plan collapsed, Sarah intended to blame him.
Sheriff Dalton understood too.
He opened the patrol car’s rear door.
“Sarah Collins-Parker,” he said, “I need you to come with me.”
May you like
But Brenda suddenly reached into her coat.
And when her hand came out, she was holding a lighter.
