CHAPTER 2 — THE HOUSE WAS NO LONGER HIS
The sirens stopped directly outside our home.
For one long second, no one moved.
Dominic stared toward the windows as red and blue light swept across the kitchen walls.
Victoria lowered her wineglass.
Arthur finally turned away from the television.
Then someone pounded on the front door.
“Police! Open the door!”
Dominic looked at me.
The confidence disappeared from his face so quickly that it almost made me laugh.
Almost.
“What did you do?” he whispered.
I kept my injured hand against my chest.
“I survived.”
His expression hardened.
Dominic grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close enough that only I could hear him.
“You’re going to tell them it was an accident.”
Another heavy knock shook the door.
“Police! We received an emergency call from this address!”
Victoria placed her glass on the counter.
Her calm demeanor cracked for the first time.
“Dominic, handle this.”
He released me and rushed toward the foyer.
Before leaving the kitchen, he pointed at me.
“Stay quiet.”
He opened the front door only a few inches.
“Officers, I’m sorry about the misunderstanding,” he said smoothly. “My wife had a minor cooking accident.”
Detective Chloe Park’s voice came from the other side.
“Step away from the door, Dominic.”
His body went rigid.
He knew her name.
That meant he had searched my phone more carefully than I realized.
“I don’t know who you think you’re speaking to,” he replied. “This is private property.”
“And we received a live emergency transmission showing a woman being harmed inside this house.”
Dominic tried to close the door.
The officers pushed it open.
Chloe entered first, wearing a dark jacket over her protective vest. Two uniformed officers followed her.
Every one of them had an active body camera.
Dominic immediately changed his tone.
He smiled.
“Thank God you’re here. My wife is having some kind of breakdown.”
Chloe looked past him and saw me on the kitchen floor.
Her expression remained controlled, but her jaw tightened.
“Claire,” she said. “Can you come toward me?”
Dominic stepped between us.
“She burned herself while cooking. She’s embarrassed, emotional, and confused.”
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
Victoria entered the foyer behind him.
“This is an outrageous invasion,” she announced. “My son has done nothing wrong.”
Chloe looked at her.
“We watched the live feed.”
Silence fell across the house.
Arthur lowered the television volume.
Dominic’s face went pale.
“What feed?”
Chloe did not answer him.
She walked toward me slowly.
“Claire, are you safe enough to move?”
I nodded.
One of the officers helped me stand.
Dominic reached for my arm.
The second officer immediately blocked him.
“Keep your hands where we can see them.”
“This is my wife,” Dominic snapped.
Chloe’s eyes locked onto his.
“That does not make her your property.”
Victoria suddenly moved toward the kitchen island.
Her gaze had found the tiny blue light beneath the counter.
She bent down and reached for the camera.
“Don’t touch that,” Chloe ordered.
Victoria froze.
“I was looking for the first-aid kit.”
“No, you weren’t.”
An officer guided her away from the island.
Chloe examined my hand without touching it.
“Paramedics are outside. They’re going to take care of you.”
Dominic forced another smile.
“Detective, whatever you think you saw, it was taken out of context.”
“You held her hand against an active burner.”
“She pulled away while I was trying to stop her from dropping the pan.”
The lie came so easily to him.
He had practiced this moment in his head.
Maybe not this exact moment, but one like it.
The moment when someone finally asked what happened.
The moment when he would speak calmly and make me look unstable.
Victoria folded her arms.
“My daughter-in-law has always been dramatic. She once threatened to ruin our entire family because Dominic asked her to control her spending.”
My spending.
I had not been allowed to buy groceries without showing Dominic the receipt.
Arthur stepped into the foyer.
He looked exhausted rather than concerned.
“Can’t everyone just calm down?” he asked. “This is a family disagreement.”
Chloe faced him.
“A family disagreement does not require an emergency medical response.”
Arthur said nothing.
The paramedics entered.
As they examined me, Chloe turned toward Dominic.
“Dominic Hale, place your hands behind your back.”
His calm expression vanished.
“You can’t arrest me based on some illegal camera.”
“The footage was transmitted by the person who installed the device inside her own residence.”
“The house is mine.”
I looked at him.
“No,” I said.
Everyone turned toward me.
My voice shook, but I continued.
“The money used to purchase this house came from my grandmother’s trust.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“The deed has my name on it.”
Chloe placed him in handcuffs.
“That argument belongs in court.”
Dominic twisted toward me.
“You think you’ve won?”
One officer tightened his hold.
“Stop resisting.”
“You’ll come crawling back when you realize you have nothing!” Dominic shouted. “No house, no car, no money, no job!”
Victoria moved closer to me.
“This family gave you everything.”
I looked at the wine still staining the rim of her glass.
“You gave me a reason to install a camera.”
The officers led Dominic toward the front door.
That was when his laptop chimed from the kitchen counter.
A message appeared on the screen.
The preview was large enough for everyone to read.
TRANSFER CONFIRMED: $487,000
My stomach dropped.
Below the amount was the name of the account.
BENNETT FAMILY TRUST — FINAL DISTRIBUTION
Bennett was my grandmother’s maiden name.
Dominic saw the screen.
He lunged toward the laptop.
The officers pulled him back.
“Turn that off!” he shouted. “That’s confidential business information!”
Chloe stepped toward the computer.
She did not touch it.
She simply read the notification.
Then she looked at me.
“Claire, do you recognize that account?”
I could barely breathe.
“That’s my trust.”
Dominic stopped struggling.
Victoria stared at the floor.
Arthur slowly sat down.
And in that moment, I understood why Dominic had become increasingly desperate over the past month.
The violence had not been about a ruined steak.
It had never been about dinner.
He had been trying to frighten me into silence before I discovered that nearly half a million dollars had disappeared.
But the message on the laptop revealed something even worse.
It was labeled the final distribution.
May you like
Which meant this was not the first transfer.
It was only the last.
