Chapter 3 - Skeletons In The Mercer Closet
Vanessa’s smirk vanished so quickly it seemed like someone had slapped the color clean off her cheeks. Her wine glass wobbled in her grip, a drop of dark red liquid splashing onto the cream rug.
"What did you just say?" Robert barked, leaning forward in his recliner with his fists clenched. "What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you spewing in my house now?"
Daniel rushed over from the kitchen, his face burning crimson with fresh embarrassment. "Emily, stop! What is wrong with you? We came here to fix things, not to make crazy accusations!"
"Ask your sister," I said, pulling a folded legal document from my designer handbag and holding it up for everyone to see. "When Daniel and I closed on our townhouse two weeks before the wedding, we put forty thousand dollars down. Daniel told me he handled the title deed filing through a local notary. But when I checked the county registrar database late Thursday night, I found something fascinating."
Margaret set her serving tray down on the coffee table with trembling hands. "What are you talking about, Emily? Vanessa has nothing to do with your house."
"Actually, Margaret, she does," I replied with an icy smile. "Vanessa runs a small title-escrow service downtown. She altered the primary deed registration form before submission. Daniel owns fifty percent, but the remaining fifty percent was registered under a secondary limited liability corporation. And guess who owns that LLC? Vanessa Mercer."
The room plunged into dead, suffocating silence. Robert turned his heavy gaze toward his daughter, his brows furrowing with genuine confusion and rising irritation. "Vanessa? Is this true?"
"It... it was a precaution, Dad!" Vanessa stammered, her voice rising an octave higher, completely abandoning the victim act. "Daniel was rushing into this marriage! He barely dated Emily for a year before proposing! If they got divorced in six months, she could have taken half of his assets! I was just protecting the Mercer family estate!"
"Protecting the family?" I countered, taking two steps toward her until she had to tilt her chin up to look at me. "I paid thirty thousand of that forty-thousand-dollar down payment from my own personal savings. Daniel contributed ten. You stole my equity, put it into your corporate shell company, and then had the audacity to slap my hand and tell me I'm not family?"
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Daniel looked like he had been struck by lightning. He turned toward his sister, his voice trembling with disbelief. "Vanessa... you told me that LLC was just a tax buffer for the closing costs. You told me you were doing me a favor."
Vanessa glared at Daniel, suddenly cornered like a frightened animal. "I did it for you, Daniel! Because you're too weak to protect yourself! She’s an outsider, and she doesn't belong here!"
