Chapter 3 - The Changed Lock
The first thing Wyatt changed was the lock on the upstairs office.
It had once been Harrison’s study.
After Harrison began working mostly from the company headquarters, Wyatt asked to use it for job applications.
Leona agreed.
Two weeks later, her key no longer worked.
“You changed the lock?”
“I need privacy.”
“This is our house.”
“And you walk in whenever you want.”
“I knocked yesterday.”
“You still came in.”
Leona looked at the new deadbolt.
“What are you hiding?”
Wyatt leaned against the doorframe.
“Maybe I’m tired of being treated like a criminal.”
She walked away.
That evening, she noticed three envelopes missing from the kitchen counter.
A property-tax notice.
A letter from Harrison’s retirement account.
And a statement from their home-equity line of credit.
When she asked Wyatt whether he had seen them, he laughed.
“Why would I care about your boring mail?”
The next morning, Leona called the bank.
Someone had attempted to reset the password on the home-equity account.
The request had failed because the caller could not answer a security question.
Leona froze.
“Can you tell me what phone number was used?”
The representative read the last four digits.
They matched Wyatt’s phone.
Leona said nothing when Harrison returned from his trip.
She wanted to believe there was an explanation.
Instead, she confronted Wyatt privately.
He denied it.
Then he blamed her.
“You probably typed my number by accident.”
“I called the bank.”
“So now you’re spying on me?”
“You tried to access our credit.”
“I was checking whether Dad had ruined my credit by putting something in my name.”
“That makes no sense.”
His expression changed.
For one second, she saw something cold and calculating beneath the anger.
Then he smiled.
“You’ve been forgetting things lately.”
Leona stared at him.
“What?”
“You lose mail. You confuse numbers. You tell Dad stories that never happened.”
“I have never done that.”
“You sure?”
That night, Wyatt told Harrison that Leona seemed exhausted and forgetful.
Harrison looked concerned.
Leona denied it too quickly.
Wyatt watched her from across the room.
A small, satisfied smile touched his mouth.
He was not merely taking money.
He was building a story about her.
A story in which she was confused.
Emotional.
Unreliable.
The next day, Leona installed a small camera inside the hallway smoke detector.
She hated herself for doing it.
But three nights later, the camera recorded Wyatt entering the office with her checkbook, Harrison’s passport copy, and a folder of mortgage documents.
He was not alone.
A woman followed him inside.
Leona recognized her immediately.
May you like
It was Tara, Wyatt’s former girlfriend—the same woman who had supposedly thrown him out ten months earlier.
👉 Wyatt had lied about why he came home, and Tara’s first sentence inside the locked office revealed that his return had never been temporary.
