Chapter 3 - Playing the Loving Wife
Kyle swallowed so hard his throat made a clicking sound. He slowly set his briefcase down near the nightstand—a detail I mentally logged immediately—and forced a tight, panicked grin onto his face.
"No, no! Everything is fine, honey," he said, his voice pitching higher than normal. "It's just... work was crazy today. And then Mom said your father came by."
"Oh, Dad," I said, walking toward the bed and sitting on the edge, resting my hands in my lap. "Yes, I saw him briefly before he went back to Nebraska. Poor Dad. He dropped a basket of food in the living room. Susan and Heather were a bit upset about the mess."
Kyle’s eyes narrowed slightly, testing the waters. "Did he... did he say much to you?"
"Not really," I lied effortlessly, looking up at him with wide, exhausted eyes. "He was so embarrassed about spilling the mole and breaking the eggs on our floor that he could barely look me in the eye. He just said he wanted to go home before he caused any more trouble. You know how sensitive he is about being a burden."
I saw the tension slowly leave Kyle’s shoulders. The tight, defensive posture thawed into a smug, arrogant relief. He actually believed it. He actually believed that my father had been too humiliated by his mother and sister to mention the three-million-dollar lie.
"Yeah," Kyle chuckled, running a hand through his hair as he walked over and sat beside me. "Your dad... he's a good guy, Chloe, but he's getting old. He gets confused easily these days. Honestly, he shouldn't be traveling alone."
He gets confused easily.
The utter malice of those words made my stomach turn over. My father was sharp as a tack; he ran a hundred-acre farm, managed his own taxes, and remembered every detail of my life. Kyle was already building the narrative that my father was suffering from dementia in case the old man ever tried to speak up.
"Maybe you're right," I said, placing my hand over Kyle's trembling fingers. "I've just been so wrapped up in the company's big project. Speaking of which, Kyle, the company awarded me a massive completion bonus today. Half a million dollars."
Kyle froze. His head snapped toward me so fast I heard his neck pop. "Half a million? Cash?"
"Well, direct deposit into our joint high-yield savings account next Friday," I said, smiling sweetly. "I was thinking... maybe we can use it to pay off the rest of this house, or maybe take that trip to Italy your mother always talks about."
I watched the wheels turning in his twisted, greedy brain.
Kyle was currently holding a forged authorization to mortgage my father's farm for three million dollars. But now, he thought he was also about to get his hands on another five hundred thousand dollars of my money next week. If he panicked now or rushed the loan, he might lose the bonus.
Greed was working precisely as I intended: it was making him patient when he should have been fleeing.
"Chloe, that's... that's amazing," Kyle breathed, his eyes shining with unadulterated avarice. He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "You're incredible, you know that? The hardest working woman in the world."
"I do it for us, Kyle," I whispered against his ear. "Everything I have is yours."
"I'm going to go downstairs and talk to Mom and Heather," he said, standing up quickly. He picked up his briefcase—he wasn't about to leave it out of his sight—and headed for the door. "They were just leaving anyway. Let's have a nice, quiet dinner tonight, just the two of us."
"That sounds wonderful, sweetie," I said.
The moment he shut the bedroom door, my expression went dead.
I picked up my phone and opened a secure messaging app.
[Claire to David]: He’s taken the bait. He thinks I brought home a $500k bonus that lands next Friday. He won't pull the trigger on fleeing tonight because he wants that money too. What did you find on the lender?
A minute later, David’s response popped up.
[David]: Found it. Apex Private Capital in Downtown Phoenix. They specialize in high-risk, high-interest land equity loans. The notary on the document is a guy named Marcus Vance—he’s on Apex’s payroll. The loan closing is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM at their office.
[Claire to David]: Who is the primary officer at Apex?
[David]: A guy named Richard Vance—Marcus's uncle. They're notorious for predatory lending on rural properties. They push old farmers into signing bad paper, default them, and seize the land to sell to commercial developers.
My blood ran hot. This wasn't just Kyle acting alone. Kyle had connected with a predatory lending ring that specialized in stealing land from elderly people. He had signed away my father’s life work to a pack of legal wolves.
[Claire to David]: Get an emergency court order drafted for fraud, forgery, and elder abuse. But don't file it yet.
May you like
[David]: Why wait? We can stop the closing right now.
[Claire to David]: Because stopping it isn't enough, David. I don't just want to save the farm. I want Kyle, his mother, his sister, and Apex Capital in handcuffs. I want them to walk right into the trap.
