Before Daniel could respond, flashing lights appeared across the wet driveway. A police cruiser stopped outside, followed by a sheriff’s vehicle carrying a deputy with paperwork in his hand.
Emily looked at me in surprise.
“You called the police?”
“No.”
I soon learned that Emily had called her friend Nicole from a gas station while driving to my house. After hearing Sophie crying and learning that Daniel had physically prevented Emily from returning inside, Nicole contacted the police, who then interviewed her and a neighbor.
That neighbor had witnessed Lorraine throwing two suitcases onto the lawn, and his security camera had captured something Emily hadn’t told me. When she tried to retrieve Sophie’s winter coat, Daniel had pushed her backward and blocked her from entering.
“He pushed you?”
Emily’s silence gave me the answer, and the officer immediately warned Daniel not to approach her. A temporary protective order had already been issued, turning what Daniel and Lorraine apparently considered a family dispute into something they could no longer control.
Then Rachel appeared in the hallway wearing one of Emily’s sweaters. Emily recognized it immediately because it had belonged to her grandmother.
“Take it off.”
“Excuse me?”
“That belonged to my grandmother.”
Lorraine dismissed the sweater as nothing more than clothing, but Emily finally seemed to find the anger that exhaustion had buried. She looked directly at the woman who had locked her granddaughter outside while continuing to drink beside the Christmas tree.
“My daughter was outside in thirty-four-degree rain while you were drinking wine in my house.”
Lorraine insisted the property belonged to Daniel too, so Emily took the documents from my hands.
“Then maybe you should have checked whose name is actually on the deed.”
Daniel’s expression changed immediately. Despite helping with mortgage payments, he had never legally been added to the recorded deed, which meant the house still belonged to Emily.
As the deputy examined the documents, Lorraine’s confidence disappeared and Daniel finally seemed to understand how badly he had miscalculated. But while everyone focused on the ownership of the house, I knew there was a much larger problem waiting inside Michael’s folder.
Six months earlier, I had discovered financial documents carrying Emily’s name and what appeared to be her signature. My daughter had never signed any of them, and the bank had already started asking questions.
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