Chapter 3 - Someone Was WatchingThe photograph had been taken from across the street.
I could tell because the angle was low.
The photographer hadn't been standing on the sidewalk.
They had been sitting in a parked vehicle.
Watching the house.
I zoomed in.
There was a black SUV reflected in the windshield of a parked sedan.
Daniel called the police.
An officer arrived at my hotel forty minutes later.
He took the photograph.
Asked questions.
Checked the area around the house.
But there wasn't enough information to identify anyone.
I asked whether I should go home.
He looked at me.
“Not alone.”
So I didn't.
Instead, Daniel helped me obtain emergency legal protection over the property.
We also contacted the county recorder.
The clerk confirmed something terrifying.
A document had been submitted two days earlier.
It wasn't final.
But it was moving through the system.
A transfer.
My property was being positioned for sale.
I sat there staring at the screen.
“Who filed it?”
The clerk hesitated.
“A law office.”
“Which one?”
She gave me the name.
I recognized it immediately.
It was the same attorney who had handled Brandon's business incorporation.
I felt a chill.
When I called Brandon again, he didn't answer.
Gertrude did.
“Charlotte, you need to stop this nonsense.”
“You tried to take my house.”
“That is ridiculous.”
“Then why is an attorney filing transfer documents?”
Her breathing changed.
“You don't know what you're saying.”
“I know enough.”
“You've humiliated this family.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Your family ate $1,800 worth of seafood while my daughter ate instant noodles.”
Gertrude went silent.
Then she said:
“Skylar will be fine. Stop using your child to manipulate everyone.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“I will never forgive you for saying that.”
I hung up.
That evening, I drove past the house.
The lights were on.
Brandon's car was outside.
Hailey's car too.
But another vehicle was parked behind them.
Black SUV.
Same model.
Same dark windows.
I didn't stop.
I drove past and called Daniel.
“It's there.”
“Don't approach it.”
“I won't.”
“Charlotte, listen to me. Someone may be trying to intimidate you.”
“I think they're trying to scare me away.”
“You're probably right.”
Then Daniel paused.
“There is one thing you should know.”
“What?”
“The transfer paperwork includes a notarized statement saying you were present when the documents were signed.”
My stomach turned.
“What?”
“It says you personally appeared before a notary.”
“I didn't.”
“I know.”
“Who was the notary?”
Daniel gave me the name.
I looked it up.
A retired notary who had stopped working two years earlier.
That couldn't be accidental.
Someone had used an old record.
Someone had planned this.
The following morning, I visited the address listed for the notary.
The house was abandoned.
Windows boarded.
Mailbox rusted.
But inside the mailbox was a handwritten envelope.
My name was on it.
Charlotte Reynolds.
I opened it.
There was one page.
You are looking in the wrong place. Ask who really owns the company receiving the money.
Below that was a handwritten name.
Hailey.
I stared at it.
My sister-in-law.
The woman who had been living in my house for almost a year.
The woman filming the seafood dinner.
The woman who suddenly needed a renovation deposit.
I drove back to Daniel's office.
He checked corporate records.
Hailey's name wasn't listed.
But then he found something.
A company registered in Nevada.
One owner.
One director.
One mailing address.
And the address belonged to a private mailbox service.
Daniel looked up at me.
“Charlotte, this is strange.”
“What?”
“There's another company connected to it.”
He opened the second record.
Its owner was a man named Victor Hale.
I didn't know the name.
But Daniel did.
His face changed.
“Who is he?”
Daniel leaned back.
“Someone I wouldn't want to owe money to.”
Before I could ask more, my phone rang.
It was Skylar.
“Mom?”
“What's wrong?”
“I found something in your room.”
“What?”
“I think Grandma left it here.”
My heart started pounding.
“What did you find?”
Skylar whispered:
“A key.”
“To what?”
“I don't know.”
Then she said something that made the blood drain from my face.
“There was a note attached.”
“What did it say?”
Skylar read it slowly.
FOR THE SAFE YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT.
I looked at Daniel.
Neither of us spoke.
Because I had never told anyone about the safe.
Not even Brandon.
May you like
And suddenly I realized something even worse.
Someone inside my house knew about it.
