Jacob held him carefully.
“I remember this.
“You did it after we stayed up making spaghetti.”
He smiled for the first time in two days.
“I thought you were a superhero.
“Why?”
“Because you fixed everything.
I stared at him.
“No, Jacob. I was trying to fix everything. It’s not the same.
His smile disappeared.
“I know.
He sat down in front of me.
“When Amanda told me to leave, I thought that if I didn’t react, the situation would end faster. I thought I could talk to you privately afterwards and explain that I didn’t want it to happen.
“But you didn’t talk to me.
“No.
“And by the time you approached me, it was already over.”
Jacob looked down at the drawing.
“I don’t want to be that man again.
I didn’t promise her that everything would be fine.
I only held his hand for a few seconds.
Sometimes, the first step toward repair isn’t a promise.
It is acknowledging the damage without trying to reduce it.
The next morning, Eleanor called me.
“Judith, I checked the land registry. The house is still registered exclusively in his and Harold’s names, with the succession situation that we had already formalized. There is no transfer in favor of Richard Bennett.
Release the air.
“And the document?”
“I need to see the original to determine its authenticity. But there’s another thing you need to know.
I straightened up in my chair.
“Which one?”
“The record shows that three weeks ago someone requested certified information about your property. The application was filed on behalf of a law office linked to Richard’s company.
I felt my heart pound hard.
“Is it legal for them to do so?”
“Consulting certain public records may be perfectly legal. The important thing is what they intended to do with that information and whether they used any false documents to advance the process.
I thanked him and hung up.
Jacob was in the kitchen, listening from the doorway.
“What does that mean?”
“That your father-in-law has been finding out about my house.”
He sat down slowly.
“I’m going to talk to Amanda again.
“Jacob, you don’t have to do it all today.
“Yes, I do.” Because there’s something else I haven’t told you.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He pulled out his phone and opened a conversation.
“A month ago, Amanda asked me to sign a document to process a loan. He said it was a form to get a better interest rate. I signed it without reading all the pages because we were in a hurry.
I felt the cold run down my spine.
“Do you have a copy?”
“No. But I remember that there were several sheets and that one mentioned a guarantor.
“Did you sign anything related to my house?”
“I don’t know.
I stared at him.
“Jacob, I need you to understand how important this is.
“I understand.
“No. I need you to really understand. If you signed a document without reading it, we can’t assume what’s in it. We have to get a copy and review it with Eleanor.
He nodded.
For the next hour he tried to locate the file in his email. He eventually found a message from a financial services company with an attachment that was no longer available.
The request had been sent from Amanda’s address.
The subject line read: “Documentation for the new home.”
Jacob froze.
“Mom…
I approached the screen.
At the bottom of the message was a line that we hadn’t seen before.
“Thank you for authorizing the use of the family property as preliminary security.”
Jacob put a hand to his mouth.
“I never authorized that.
Then the doorbell rang.
When I opened the door, I found Patricia on the porch.
His eyes were swollen and he was carrying a white folder tight to his chest.
“Judith,” he said, “I need to show you something before Richard finds out I have it.”
He looked over my shoulder and saw Jacob.
His face twitched.
“My God. He’s here, too.
I let her in.
Patricia placed the folder on the table and took out a folded document.
“I found this hidden in Richard’s office. It is a copy of an agreement you prepared before the wedding.
Jacob took the leaf.
He read the headline.
Then he looked at the last page.
“This is not a loan,” he whispered.
I held out my hand.
The document described an operation to obtain financing using the family property as backup, with an alleged authorization from the Emersons.
And on the final page appeared a condition that none of us had ever seen before.
If the deal went through, a portion of the money would go toward covering Richard Bennett’s business debt.
