Chapter 3 - What They Paid For
Laura met me outside a gas station ten minutes from the house.
She arrived in a gray sedan, wearing jeans and the expression she used when somebody had underestimated the cost of lying.
Nora followed with a folder against her chest.
“I’m sorry,” she said before anything else.
“We can discuss that later.”
I needed facts more than apologies.
Laura reviewed the documents on the hood of her car.
“Jessica had access,” she said. “That explains how they got in. It doesn’t explain this signature.”
“It isn’t mine.”
“I believe you. We’ll document it.”
She photographed the agreement and called the county sheriff’s nonemergency line.
She described unauthorized occupants, disputed rental authority, and apparent forgery.
She didn’t promise me that deputies could clear the house that afternoon.
Neither did the dispatcher.
That was fine.
I wanted the truth on record before Ryan could improve his story.
When we returned, a woman in a yellow cardigan stood beside an SUV with two overnight bags.
She looked from me to Laura.
“Are you Emily?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Linda. Ryan’s aunt.”
I remembered her avoiding my eyes in the living room.
“I’m sorry about what he said.”
“Thank you.”
She tightened her grip on her keys.
“He told us you’d agreed.”
“To the reunion?”
“To the price.”
My stomach sank.
“What price?”
Linda opened her purse.
“We paid eighteen hundred dollars for our share. He said you insisted on charging because you didn’t know us.”
Laura stopped writing.
“Who paid him?” she asked.
“Each household.”
Linda looked toward the porch.
“He said you were difficult about money.”
Of course he had.
He had taken their money, used my house, and explained away my absence by making me the villain.
“Would you show us the payment confirmation?” Laura asked.
Linda nodded.
The front door opened.
Ryan came down the steps fast.
“What are you doing out here?”
Linda turned.
“You said she approved this.”
“She did.”
“No,” I said.
His eyes moved to Laura’s folder.
Then to Nora.
His smile vanished.
“Emily, don’t embarrass yourself.”
Laura introduced herself.
Ryan gave a sharp little laugh.
“You brought a lawyer to a family reunion?”
“You charged admission to someone else’s house,” she said.
A sheriff’s vehicle appeared at the bend in the driveway.
Ryan watched it approach.
For the first time that afternoon, he looked uncertain.
May you like
Then Jessica stepped onto the porch holding a document.
“Before anybody says anything else,” she said, “you need to read what Emily signed.”
