She sat in the realtor’s office staring at the offer in her hand in hock. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” the woman said as she sucked deep on her vaping apparatus, blowing eucalyptus scented smoke around her head. “I had a call this morning telling me the buyer wanted something in your neighborhood, with your specific number of bedrooms and bathrooms. It was a kismet situation. He made a full cash offer. Close tomorrow. All you must do is sign on the line and find a way to get your furnishings out by tomorrow. Do you have an alternate place to go?”
She looked at her brother beside her and nodded, “yes. My brother and his wife are going to put me up. I’ve been in the house six weeks now since I found out about his affair, and I need to get out. It’s too full of horrible memories.” She pouted her lips at Fred, “can we get everything out in a day?”
“I swear, if it takes me and three moving companies and all our friends and family the next twenty–four hours, I will get everything you want out of the house. I promise.” Fred clasped her hand and looked at the promise of a half million dollars in her
hand. “Take it and run.”
She looked at the realtor and nodded, “where do I sign?”
An hour later she had deposited the money in her personal checking account via wire transfer and was back standing in the middle of the foyer of the home she had once considered her dream home. Her glass castle of floor to window ceilings in the pricy suburban neighborhood had been her fairytale come to life. Now, as she stood looking around, it felt very much like a prison.
She looked around sadly and then noted the mess made in the living room and remembered the second part of her plan. She looked to Fred, clearing her throat nervously, “I think someone was here.” She felt bad for lying to him, but she couldn’t implicate him in fraud and filing false police reports. She hadn’t even told Janka or Elsie about her offer for Machado to break into her house to steal the laptop. She’d made the decision in the heat of the moment, half–asleep when the man had called.
“It couldn’t have been Merlin because he’s in the middle of his wedding vows.” Fred grimaced distastefully. “I cannot believe our mother expected us both to be there to support Sandy.”
“She gave me shit saying Sandy’s condition is delicate due to her pregnancy. You can go if you want.” She shot her brother a look as she looked around the trashed room. Whoever Machado had sent made it look good. “I think we need to call the police and step outside. I don’t know what’s been touched and what hasn’t been.”
“It’s a good idea to call the police. Also, I’d rather rip my limbs off and feed them to the McGrath estate pinschers than support those two assholes.” Fred said as he dragged her out of the house in rush, looking over his shoulder worriedly. “I hope nobody is still in there.” He dialed 911 and reported the break in. It was an affluent neighborhood, and the wealthy were always catered to, therefore the police were on their way.
“How strange is it a secret purchaser of your home paid full asking in cash?”
“Very.” She said nothing more and looked away with a smirk.
“What? I know that grin. What are you hiding?”
“I may have tipped off a certain developer of the house going on the market. One who despises Merlin’s family.”
“Why?” He was stunned.
“Sandy wants the house. For the last three weeks I’ve been getting text messages and phone calls from both her and Merlin. asking me to sell it to them. Merlin offered me twice the market value for it. I haven’t answered a single message or call. I delete them but he’s persistent.”
“He offered a million?”
1/2
Chapter 7
“He did. She wants to raise their child in my house and he’s giving her whatever she wants. I don’t know what I ever did to her to make her want to hurt me the way she does but whatever I have, he wants it. She’s been jealous of the house since I first moved in. She used to say all the time it was far too much house for a simple artist. I loved the natural light in it. Now, I’d do anything to make sure it never falls into her hands.”
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