Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE BUILT ON SOMEONE ELSE’S MONEY
I drove to Teresa’s townhouse the next morning.
She opened the door in sweatpants.
No champagne gown.
No pearls.
No performance.
I held up my phone.
“Daniel told me about Rebecca.”
She closed her eyes.
Then opened the door wider.
“Come in.”
Her living room looked exactly the way it always did.
Perfect pillows.
Perfect candles.
Perfect family portraits.
Suddenly everything felt staged.
“Did you tell Richard to forge Rebecca’s signature?”
Teresa remained standing.
“I told him she would never agree.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“He said he could handle it.”
“Did you know what that meant?”
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
At least it was honest.
“Then you lied last night.”
“I was ashamed.”
“You were caught.”
“That too.”
I sat down.
“Why did Rebecca wait twenty-three years?”
“She didn’t.”
Teresa sat across from me.
“She threatened to sue us almost immediately.”
“What happened?”
“Richard convinced her not to.”
“How?”
“He gave her money.”
“How much?”
“Thirty thousand.”
“From a sale that funded an entire property business?”
“I didn’t say it was fair.”
“No. You just accepted it.”
Her face tightened.
“I had two young children. A mortgage. Richard had already invested the money.”
“So Rebecca paid for your stability.”
Teresa’s voice sharpened.
“You think I don’t know that now?”
“I think you knew it then.”
She looked away.
I opened my phone.
“Daniel says Rebecca’s estate could claim half the properties.”
“Not half.”
“What?”
Teresa stood and walked toward a cabinet.
She took out an old envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of a handwritten letter.
“The lake house belonged sixty percent to Rebecca.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Their parents left more to her because she took care of them.”
“So Richard forged her signature and took sixty percent of money that wasn’t his.”
“Yes.”
“And you helped him.”
“Yes.”
I leaned back.
Miller Family Holdings had once owned six rental houses.
The family sold them gradually after Richard died.
Daniel and Melanie received distributions.
Teresa kept part as retirement income.
Nobody had ever explained where the business began.
Now I understood.
“What did Rebecca’s estate want?”
“Restitution.”
“How much?”
Teresa’s lips pressed together.
“Originally nine hundred thousand.”
I stared.
“That’s not a loan.”
“No.”
“So Daniel lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t want you to know what his father did.”
I almost laughed.
“After stealing my necklace?”
Teresa said nothing.
“Where did the one-hundred-twenty-six thousand from the Concord house go?”
“To Rebecca’s estate.”
“All of it?”
“Most.”
I studied her.
“You know the numbers.”
“I signed the settlement.”
I froze.
“You signed it too?”
“Yes.”
Daniel had hidden that.
“What did you agree to?”
Teresa looked toward the hallway.
“To repay four hundred eighty thousand dollars over three years.”
My chest tightened.
“Using what?”
“Remaining property proceeds.”
“There’s only one house left.”
“I know.”
“How much is still owed?”
“Three hundred fourteen thousand.”
I let out a slow breath.
There was the pressure.
Daniel had taken our money because his family owed hundreds of thousands.
But another piece still didn’t fit.
“Why not tell me?”
Teresa gave me a tired look.
“Would you have agreed to give them forty thousand dollars?”
“No.”
“That’s why.”
I stood.
“No. That’s why you ask and accept the answer.”
She looked down.
I put the letter back.
Then I noticed something handwritten at the bottom.
Rebecca’s initials.
A date.
And beneath them:
Daniel knows what Richard did. He was there when Richard admitted it.
I looked at Teresa.
“What is this?”
She followed my finger.
Her face changed.
“When did Rebecca write this?”
“Two years ago.”
“Daniel told me he only learned after she died.”
Teresa stared at the line.
“He lied.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Melanie.
Clara, I found Dad’s old accounting box.
There’s something in here with your name on it.
I called immediately.
“What?”
Her voice shook.
“A copy of your prenup.”
I frowned.
“Daniel and I never signed a prenup.”
Melanie went silent.
May you like
Then whispered:
“That’s the problem.”
