Chapter 5: The Call He Didn't Know I Could Hear
Marcus arrived at one o'clock with a leather folder and the kind of expression that meant he had already stopped treating this as a hypothetical.
He sat at the kitchen table, opened the folder, and set a single sheet of paper in front of me.
"This is what David was asking about," he said.
"Specifically, this clause." He tapped a paragraph near the bottom of the page.
"In Texas, a financial gift from a third party toward a property purchase can be reclassified as a loan under certain conditions.
If it can be shown that the deceased intended repayment — even informally — the contribution loses its protected status in a division of assets."
"My father gave us that money," I said.
"He never asked for it back.
He never would have."
"I know that," Marcus said.
"But without the original gift letter or the purchase documents showing how the funds were designated, it becomes your word against theirs." He paused.
"Do you have the blue binder?"
"It's in the home office."
"Get it.
Today.
Before anyone else does."
I went upstairs, retrieved the binder from the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, and brought it back to the kitchen.
Marcus spent twenty minutes going through it page by page.
He pulled out four documents and set them aside.
"These need to go somewhere safe," he said.
"Not in this house."
Renee took them without being asked and put them in her bag.
Marcus looked at me.
"Hannah, I have to ask you directly.
Do you believe David knows what his mother arranged?"
I picked up the notepad with the message I had copied from David's phone.
I slid it across the table.
Marcus read it.
He set it down.
He didn't say anything for a moment.
"That's enough for me to advise you to speak to a family attorney today," he said.
"Not tomorrow.
Today."
"I have one more thing to do first," I said.
At 2:17 p.m., David's phone rang on the kitchen counter.
I had put it back exactly where he'd left it.
I had thought about this all morning.
David would come home for it at lunch — he always did when he forgot it — but he hadn't.
Which meant he was staying away on purpose.
Which meant he was waiting for news.
The phone rang four times and went to voicemail.
Two minutes later, it rang again.
The screen faced up.
I could see the caller ID from across the room.
*Mom.*
I walked to the counter.
I looked at Renee.
She gave me one small nod.
I answered it on speaker and set it back down without saying a word.
Evelyn's voice filled the kitchen.
"David, he couldn't get in.
She was still there.
I don't know what happened — she was supposed to leave at 7:30.
He said her car was in the driveway." A pause.
"David, are you there?
We need to talk about this.
If she finds out before we have the documents, the whole thing falls apart.
Call me back.
Call me right now."
The line went dead.
Marcus looked at his notepad.
He wrote something down, tore the sheet off, and handed it to me.
It was a name and a phone number.
"Family attorney," he said.
"Tell her Marcus referred you.
Tell her it's urgent."
I took the paper.
"One more thing," I said.
"The man outside this morning — the police followed him but didn't hold him.
I have him on video from the mall.
Full face.
Is that enough?"
Marcus closed his folder.
"That," he said, "is more than enough."
Renee's hand found mine under the table.
May you like
She squeezed once and let go.
My phone was already in my other hand.
