Chapter 8 - KELSEY’S MISTAKE
The next morning, Kelsey called me.
I almost ignored her.
Margaret told me to answer.
Again.
Every conversation seemed to become evidence.
“Emily?”
“What do you want?”
Her voice was softer than usual.
“I wanted to see how the baby is.”
I stared at the wall.
“You laughed when my water broke.”
Silence.
“I was nervous.”
“You were laughing.”
“I didn’t understand what was happening.”
“You understood enough to watch my father drag me through my own house.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“I didn’t touch you.”
“You helped file a forged deed.”
“That wasn’t my idea.”
There it was again.
Everyone was starting to blame everyone else.
“Whose idea was it?”
She hesitated.
“Richard said you were going to lose the house anyway.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“He said Daniel had structured everything wrong.”
“He lied.”
“I know that now.”
I almost ended the call.
Then Kelsey said something that stopped me.
“He told me the company would be ours by Friday.”
I sat up straighter.
“Ours?”
“He promised me forty percent of whatever he got.”
Margaret, sitting across the room, began taking notes.
I asked, “In writing?”
Kelsey went quiet.
“Kelsey.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I have a copy.”
“Send it to me.”
“No.”
“Then why are you calling?”
“Because Richard is blaming me for the deed.”
“He already did.”
Her silence told me she had not known.
“He said that?”
“Yes.”
Kelsey cursed under her breath.
I had never liked her.
She had married my father eleven months after meeting him.
She wore my late mother’s jewelry without asking.
She called Daniel boring because he refused to finance one of her businesses.
But suddenly she was learning the same lesson everyone eventually learned about Richard Hale.
Loyalty only mattered when it benefited him.
“Kelsey.”
“What?”
“If you forged my signature, I won’t protect you.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then prove it.”
“I prepared the paperwork.”
My stomach tightened.
“But?”
“But Richard signed your name.”
Margaret looked up sharply.
“Did you see him do it?”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Kelsey continued.
“And I have something else.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
My heart started pounding.
“Of what?”
“Richard talking about Daniel.”
I swallowed.
“What about Daniel?”
May you like
Kelsey took a shaky breath.
“He said Daniel’s death solved more problems than he expected.”
