Chapter 2: Someone Is Waiting Outside
Everyone in that room stared at the document under the tree.
Patricia's hand shot out.
"Give me that."
Daniel stepped between her and the tree.
"Don't."
His voice was still calm.
That was the part that frightened me most.
Emily picked up the document herself.
Her eyes moved across the page.
Then she looked up at her grandmother with an expression I had never seen on my daughter's face before.
"You used my name," Emily said quietly.
"You opened a second account using my name."
The room went completely still.
Mark stood up slowly.
"Mom.
Tell me that's not true."
Patricia turned toward her youngest son, and for one moment I thought she was going to deny everything.
Instead, she said: "Everything I did was for this family."
Three of Daniel's aunts looked away.
One cousin quietly set down her gift.
Emily placed the document back under the tree without a word.
Then Daniel's phone buzzed on the side table.
He glanced at the screen.
Something shifted in his face — something I couldn't read.
He looked at me.
Then at Emily.
"There's someone outside," he said.
---
What Daniel found waiting outside that door changed everything that happened next.
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