Chapter 5 - Let Them Enjoy Europe
Sarah didn't knock.
She had grown up in that house.
She opened the door with the spare key I had mailed her three days earlier and walked straight inside.
At forty-one, my daughter had Harold's eyes and my inability to tolerate nonsense.
She dropped her suitcase.
Then she looked at Dominic.
“What did you do?”
“Sarah—”
“What did you do?”
Amber stepped in.
“This is a private family matter.”
Sarah turned toward her.
“You put my mother in a nursing home and sold her house.”
Her voice became terrifyingly quiet.
“You don't get to define family.”
I had imagined Sarah's arrival many times.
I expected shouting.
Instead, she hugged me.
Hard.
For almost a minute.
Then she whispered, “Why didn't you call me?”
“Because you would have come home.”
“Obviously.”
“You would have confronted them.”
“Obviously.”
“And I needed them comfortable.”
Sarah pulled back.
For the first time, she smiled.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“That is terrifying.”
Dorothy laughed.
Dominic didn't.
Over the next hour, Margaret joined us.
Amber finally left after being advised that continued confrontation served nobody.
Dominic stayed.
Perhaps because he had nowhere else to go.
Perhaps because the truth had finally become heavier than his anger.
Sarah sat across from him.
“Did you forge Mom's signature?”
“No.”
“Did you know it was forged?”
“No.”
“Did you sell her house?”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“Yes.”
“Did she give permission?”
“No.”
“Did you send her to Sunset Manor?”
His voice became barely audible.
“Yes.”
Sarah leaned back.
“Then don't hide behind Amber.”
I looked at my daughter.
That was precisely what I needed someone to say.
Because discovering Amber's secret company had created a dangerous temptation.
The temptation to make Dominic innocent.
He wasn't.
Maybe he hadn't committed every wrong.
But he had committed enough.
Dominic cried that night.
I had seen my son cry many times.
At seventeen when his dog died.
At twenty-three after his first serious breakup.
At Harold's funeral.
This was different.
This wasn't grief over something taken from him.
It was the beginning of understanding what he had taken from someone else.
“I thought the house would eventually be ours anyway,” he said.
Sarah's expression hardened.
“Ours?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No. Explain it.”
“When Mom…”
He couldn't finish.
“When I die?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“So because you expected to inherit something later, you decided to take it now.”
He closed his eyes.
Hearing it plainly made the ugliness unavoidable.
“Amber said you didn't need a whole house.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Amber said I'd be safer somewhere with staff.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“She said selling would solve everyone's problems.”
He nodded.
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
I leaned forward.
“Dominic, your greatest mistake wasn't trusting Amber.”
He looked at me.
“It was deciding I no longer had the right to make decisions about my own life.”
He began crying again.
I didn't comfort him.
Not because I stopped loving him.
Because consequences sometimes need silence.
The following morning, Margaret brought preliminary figures.
Of the roughly $180,000 spent or transferred, a large portion had gone toward travel and luxury purchases.
Some purchases might be recoverable.
Some funds remained frozen.
But there was another discovery.
A $35,000 payment had gone to Nathan Cole.
Amber's brother.
The other manager of Horizon.
Sarah looked at Dominic.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Margaret continued.
“And another twenty thousand went into an account solely controlled by Amber.”
Dominic looked physically ill.
He had spent recklessly.
But his wife had apparently been building something else.
A reserve.
An exit.
Maybe a future without him.
Sarah said what all of us were thinking.
“She was going to leave you.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
But there was no conviction.
His phone buzzed.
Amber.
He stared at the screen.
Then answered.
“Where are you?”
We couldn't hear her response.
Dominic's expression changed.
“What do you mean, you're at the airport?”
Sarah stood.
Dominic put the phone on speaker.
Amber's voice filled the room.
“I need space.”
Margaret immediately signaled for everyone to remain quiet.
Dominic asked, “Are you leaving the country?”
“Don't make this worse.”
“Amber, there is a legal hold.”
“I haven't done anything.”
“What about Horizon?”
Silence.
“What about the forty-three thousand?”
More silence.
Then Amber said something that changed everything.
“You signed the papers too, Dominic.”
His face emptied.
“What papers?”
“You really should have read everything I put in front of you.”
The call ended.
Nobody moved.
Margaret was the first to speak.
“Save that call record.”
Dominic stared at his phone.
Sarah whispered, “She set you up.”
Margaret corrected her.
“We don't know that yet.”
But Dominic looked as though he did.
He sat down.
“I signed documents before Europe.”
“What documents?” Margaret asked.
“Business papers. Amber said they were for her company.”
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you read them?”
“No.”
Sarah threw her hands up.
“Do people in this family just sign whatever is put in front of them?”
Even I had to admit she had a point.
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
Then suddenly froze.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“There was one paper.”
My stomach tightened.
“What paper?”
“Amber asked me to sign something the night before the house sale.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“What was it?”
“I don't know. But Nathan was there.”
“Where?”
“Our apartment.”
“When?”
Dominic gave the date.
Margaret wrote it down.
Then he said, “Wait.”
“What?”
“We have a camera.”
Everyone stared.
“A security camera?”
“In the living room. Amber installed it after a package was stolen.”
“Does it record inside?”
“Yes.”
“Cloud storage?”
Dominic nodded slowly.
Margaret's voice sharpened.
“How long does it retain footage?”
“Six months.”
The room changed.
Because suddenly this wasn't only about documents.
There might be a recording.
A recording of Amber and Nathan discussing exactly what Dominic was signing.
Dominic logged into the account.
His hands shook as he searched the date.
Then he found it.
A thumbnail appeared.
Amber.
Nathan.
Dominic.
Sitting around their dining table.
He pressed play.
At first, nothing happened except ordinary conversation.
Then Dominic left the room to answer a phone call.
Amber leaned toward Nathan.
And although the audio was faint, we heard her clearly.
“Once Vera is out, the house is ours.”
Dominic stopped the video.
Nobody breathed.
Sarah stared at Amber's frozen face on the screen.
Margaret quietly said:
“Play the rest.”
Dominic did.
And thirty seconds later, we heard something none of us expected.
Something that proved the plan had started much earlier than the SOLD sign.
Before Harold's death.
Before Sunset Manor.
Before Dominic ever believed he was helping Amber build their future.
And when Dominic heard his wife's next sentence, he dropped the phone.
Because Amber hadn't only planned to steal my house.
May you like
She had planned what would happen to Dominic after she got it.
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