Chapter 5 - The Woman Beside Him.
Emma did not wait for Mason to knock.
She opened the front door and stepped onto the porch before he reached the stairs.
The blonde woman remained near the SUV, one hand tucked into the pocket of her red coat.
Mason looked exhausted rather than guilty, which only irritated Emma more.
"You should be inside," he said.
Emma stared at him.
"That is the first thing you say?"
"There was someone in the tree line."
"I noticed."
"Did you see a vehicle?"
"I saw yours."
Her gaze moved toward the blonde woman.
"And I see you brought company."
Mason closed his eyes briefly.
"Emma, this is Sloane."
"I do not care what her name is."
The blonde woman walked closer.
"You might."
Her voice was dry and unimpressed.
"I'm his sister."
Emma blinked.
Mason had told her he had no siblings.
Sloane gave him a look.
"He did not tell you about me either, did he?"
Emma turned slowly toward Mason.
"You have a sister."
"Half sister."
"That distinction does not improve this."
Sloane almost smiled.
Mason did not.
"We need to go inside."
Emma remained in the doorway.
"You are not coming into this house until you answer one question."
"Which one?"
"How many parts of your life did you invent?"
Mason looked down at the porch boards.
Sloane answered for him.
"Enough that we are going to be standing here all night if you start with that one."
Emma's eyes flashed.
"This is not funny."
"I know."
Sloane's expression softened.
"And I am not defending him."
Mason looked toward the tree line.
"Can we argue indoors?"
Emma stepped aside reluctantly.
Sloane entered first.
Mason followed and locked the door behind him.
Emma noticed he checked the deadbolt twice.
He had done the same thing earlier that day before leaving.
"Why is the power out?"
Sloane asked.
"According to the utility company, Mason canceled it."
Sloane turned toward him.
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then Grant has your account information."
Mason's face hardened.
Emma lit two battery lanterns and set them on the kitchen table.
The three of them sat beneath the weak yellow light like strangers waiting for an interrogation.
Emma placed the photocopied contract in front of Mason.
"Explain this."
He read the first page.
"Where did you get it?"
"The wine cellar."
His eyes shifted.
"Clara."
"Yes."
Sloane muttered something under her breath.
Emma looked at her.
"You know Clara too?"
"Unfortunately."
"She told me to trust no one."
"That is the smartest thing she has said in years."
Mason pushed the contract back toward Emma.
"The agreement is real."
"I already know that."
"I signed it because Grant Hale believes my father stole something from his family."
Emma frowned.
"What?"
"Proof."
Mason leaned forward.
"My father worked as caretaker and restoration foreman at Briarstone when Evelyn Reed still lived here."
"My grandmother."
"Yes."
"Why did no one ever tell me?"
"Because after your mother left Bellamy County, Evelyn cut off almost everyone connected to the property."
Emma thought of her mother, Laura, who had refused to discuss Briarstone while she was alive.
"What proof did your father have?"
Mason looked at Sloane.
Sloane took over.
"Records showing that Grant's father, Harrison Hale, acquired several parcels around Briarstone using forged easements and shell companies."
"That was decades ago."
"And Grant's development plan depends on those parcels being clean."
Mason tapped the contract.
"Grant approached me because he knew my father had worked here."
Emma stared at him.
"And you let him think you would help take the land from me."
"At the time, you had not inherited it."
"You knew I might."
Mason's silence answered her.
Emma pushed away from the table.
"You knew before the probate letter."
"Two weeks before."
"How?"
"Grant told me the alternate trustee was preparing a petition."
Emma felt sick.
"So when you acted surprised by the inheritance—"
"I was surprised the notice came that quickly."
"That is not the same thing."
"No."
Mason did not try to defend himself.
"It isn't."
Emma walked to the dark kitchen window.
"You let me believe this place was some miracle that arrived when we needed it."
"I wanted you to have the choice before Grant took it away."
"A choice requires information."
Sloane looked at Mason.
"She has you there."
He ignored her.
"Grant thinks I am working for him."
Emma turned back.
"And the five hundred thousand dollars?"
"I have not received it."
"Yet."
"No."
"Would you have?"
Mason hesitated one second too long.
Emma saw it.
"Unbelievable."
"I planned to take the first payment because it would prove he was paying me to interfere with the trust."
"That sounds very noble when you say it that way."
"It was evidence."
"It was also money we desperately needed."
Mason's expression tightened.
"Both things can be true."
Emma laughed without humor.
"Finally, an honest sentence."
Sloane reached into her coat and placed a small black device on the table.
Emma looked at it.
"What is that?"
"A motion camera."
Sloane pressed a button.
A tiny screen lit up.
Grainy video showed the front of Briarstone from the tree line.
Emma recognized herself standing on the porch hours earlier.
"Where did you get this?"
"From a hunter's camera about eighty yards east of the drive."
Sloane advanced the footage.
At 2:18 p.m., the silver sedan Emma had seen leaving the property appeared on screen.
The driver's face became visible for one frame.
Emma leaned closer.
It was Deputy Nolan Rusk.
Her stomach dropped.
"He was here before he answered my call."
"Forty minutes before," Sloane said.
The video continued.
Rusk carried Emma's brown suitcase out of the mansion and loaded it into his trunk.
Emma gripped the edge of the table.
"Why would a deputy steal my suitcase?"
Mason's voice was grim.
"Because someone paid him to find whatever they thought was inside it."
Emma remembered her probate letter.
"There was nothing important in there."
Mason looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
She listed the contents in her head.
Clothes.
Laptop charger.
Toiletries.
Medication.
The probate letter.
A framed picture of her mother.
Then she remembered the small blue envelope tucked inside the inner lining.
Her mother had given it to her years ago with instructions not to open it until Emma owned a home of her own.
Emma had almost forgotten it existed.
Her face must have changed.
Mason noticed.
"What was in the suitcase?"
"A letter from my mother."
"What kind of letter?"
"I don't know."
Emma swallowed.
"I never opened it."
A loud knock struck the front door.
All three of them froze.
Another knock followed.
Then a man's voice called from outside.
"County building department."
Mason looked at the clock.
It was 9:42 p.m.
Sloane whispered, "They don't inspect houses at night."
The man outside knocked again.
"Ms. Reed, we have an emergency condemnation order."
Emma looked at Mason.
Thirty consecutive days of occupancy.
May you like
The safety clause.
Someone was not waiting until morning.
