Chapter 6 - Eight Million Dollars
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Mark said:
“That’s impossible.”
Victor barely looked at him.
“No.”
He explained.
The beach access easement had been created in 1968.
It ran with the original parcel.
When the land was subdivided, the easement remained attached to the cottage.
Most title searches overlooked it because the legal description referenced an obsolete lot number.
Ocean Crown’s attorneys found it only after reviewing historical coastal-access maps.
Without my consent, their entire luxury development would require redesign.
Cost:
Potentially tens of millions.
That was why Victor’s first offer had been low.
He hadn’t known yet.
Now he did.
So did my family.
Mom immediately changed expression.
“Daryl…”
I laughed.
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard me.”
“I’ve heard you for forty-two years.”
Jenna suddenly became sweet.
“This actually solves everything.”
I looked at her.
“For whom?”
“All of us.”
“There is no us in the deed.”
Her mouth tightened.
Then Mark said:
“You’d really let your parents lose their home?”
Dad flinched.
I turned to him.
“Did you know Mom stole my inheritance?”
“No.”
“Did you know Jenna filed ownership claims?”
“No.”
“Did you know Mark tried borrowing against the cottage?”
“No.”
He looked genuinely ashamed.
“Then stop asking me to rescue everyone who lied to you.”
Dad lowered his eyes.
Mom did not.
She attacked.
“You think being a surgeon makes you better than us.”
“No.”
“You abandoned this family when you divorced Claire.”
My ex-wife’s name landed strangely.
“What does my divorce have to do with this?”
Mom hesitated.
Too late.
“What?”
Jenna looked away.
My stomach tightened.
“Jenna.”
She said nothing.
Then Eli appeared with something in his hand.
An old phone.
“Dad?”
“What is that?”
“Aunt Jenna left it in our room.”
Jenna moved instantly.
“Give me that!”
I stepped between them.
Deputy Reed reacted too.
“Ma’am, stay back.”
Eli handed me the phone.
It was unlocked.
Screen open to messages.
Jenna and my ex-wife.
Claire Mercer.
Not realtor Claire Hart.
My former wife Claire.
The messages dated back years.
Jenna:
Daryl still doesn’t know why you really signed the settlement?
Claire:
Leave it alone.
Jenna:
Mom says if he finds out about Grandma’s account, everything blows up.
My hands went cold.
My divorce.
Grandma’s account.
Connected.
I called my ex-wife.
She answered immediately.
“Daryl?”
“Why did you know about Grandma’s account?”
Silence.
“Claire.”
Her voice cracked.
“Because Elaine offered me money during the divorce.”
My entire family stopped moving.
“What money?”
“She offered to make the custody fight disappear if I agreed never to tell you what she’d done.”
I looked at Mom.
She went white.
“What had she done?”
Claire started crying.
“She emptied your grandmother’s investment account.”
“I know that now.”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“That wasn’t the worst part.”
“What was?”
“Daryl, your mother used some of that money to pay the private investigator who followed me.”
I remembered photographs presented during our custody dispute.
Claire drinking at a restaurant.
Claire entering a hotel with a man who turned out to be her attorney.
Images used to make me believe she was cheating.
Our marriage had already been troubled.
Those photographs destroyed what remained.
“You weren’t having an affair.”
“No.”
My throat tightened.
“Mom made me believe you were.”
Claire whispered:
“Yes.”
I stared at Elaine.
She looked trapped.
Then my ex-wife said something else.
“And Jenna knew.”
My sister stopped breathing.
Claire continued.
“She was the one who gave the investigator my schedule.”
Eli and Zoe were standing beside me.
My children.
The same children Jenna had just called “not real family.”
I understood why now.
Their existence reminded her of what she had helped destroy.
Then Zoe whispered:
“Daddy?”
I crouched.
“What?”
She looked toward Grandma.
“Why is she crying?”
I turned.
Mom wasn’t crying.
She was staring at the driveway.
A second black SUV had arrived.
My ex-wife stepped out.
May you like
She was holding a yellow envelope.
And beside her stood the private investigator who had helped destroy our marriage seven years earlier.
