Chapter 1 - GOT YOU
The acrylic lid came down so hard that Evelyn Mercer thought it had cracked.
“VANESSA! NO!”
Her daughter-in-law leaned over the tanning pod with both hands on the curved cover and smiled.
Not nervously.
Not angrily.
With relief.
As if this were the final step in a plan she had been carrying too long.
The lock clicked.
Evelyn’s breath stopped.
Three weeks earlier, surgeons had repaired damaged skin along her shoulders and back after a kitchen fire in her beach house.
The grafts were healing.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Her doctor had approved low-intensity light therapy at the private rehabilitation spa Vanessa recommended.
“Gentle warmth,” Vanessa had promised that morning.
“It’ll help.”
Now Vanessa grabbed the glass pitcher from the side table.
Evelyn saw what she meant to do one second too late.
“No!”
Water poured over the emergency control panel.
Sparks snapped.
The display flickered.
Vanessa laughed.
“ROAST IN HELL!”
Evelyn slammed both palms against the acrylic lid.
“OPEN IT!”
Vanessa stepped back from the water-slick controls.
The heat began climbing.
Evelyn felt it first across her shoulders.
Then her back.
Then everywhere.
“Vanessa!”
Her fists struck the lid again.
“OPEN THIS DAMN THING!”
Vanessa picked up a folder from the chair.
Cream paper.
Blue legal tabs.
The Hale Point beach house.
Evelyn recognized the transfer documents instantly.
Vanessa slapped them against the acrylic.
“SIGN THE HOUSE OVER!”
Evelyn stared at her through the curved plastic.
“You’re insane.”
“No.”
Vanessa’s face twisted.
“I’m broke.”
She crouched.
Pressed the papers against the lid.
“I WANT YOUR BEACH HOUSE!”
Evelyn tried to shift away from the heat.
There was nowhere to go.
“Then get a job.”
Vanessa screamed.
“I OWE TWO POINT EIGHT MILLION!”
The number stopped Evelyn.
Not because of its size.
Because she had heard it before.
Not from Vanessa.
From an auditor.
Two point eight million dollars.
A discrepancy buried inside Mercer Coastal Holdings.
A number Evelyn had been asking about for nine days.
Vanessa did not notice the recognition.
She thought fear had finally won.
“You think Daniel will let me go to prison?” Vanessa hissed. “You think your precious son is going to choose you after I tell him you were the one moving money?”
Evelyn’s heart changed rhythm.
There it was.
Not just the house.
The money.
The story Vanessa planned to tell afterward.
Evelyn pounded harder.
Vanessa laughed in her face.
“Sign it!”
“I can’t sign through glass, you idiot.”
Vanessa’s smile faltered.
Then returned.
“You can when I open it.”
“So open it.”
“After you agree.”
The heat climbed.
Evelyn screamed.
Her hands began slipping against the acrylic.
“Please.”
Vanessa’s eyes brightened.
That was what she wanted.
Not only property.
Submission.
Evelyn hit the lid again.
Slower.
Once.
Twice.
Then weaker.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“That’s it.”
Evelyn’s eyes closed.
Her arms dropped.
Vanessa stared.
One second.
Two.
Then she threw her head back and laughed.
“That’s it!”
She banged one fist against the lid.
“DIE STUBBORN, THEN!”
Evelyn did not move.
Vanessa paced away, shaking with adrenaline.
“The house is mine.”
Inside the pod, Evelyn opened one eye.
Slowly.
The panic disappeared from her face.
Her left hand lay near her hip.
On her wrist was the smartwatch Daniel had given her after the fire.
He had insisted she enable fall detection and emergency calling because she lived alone.
Vanessa had mocked it.
“Who’s she going to call, the Coast Guard?”
Evelyn had smiled.
Nobody.
That was not the whole truth.
Two days earlier, after her auditor mentioned the missing $2.8 million, Evelyn had changed the watch shortcut.
One press no longer called emergency services directly.
It activated a secure voice recording.
Two presses sent the recording and location to three people.
Evelyn’s finger moved.
Vanessa was still laughing.
“The house is MINE!”
Evelyn pressed.
BEEP.
She whispered:
“Got you.”
Then—
BANG.
Vanessa froze.
Another violent pounding shook the locked spa door.
BANG! BANG!
A man shouted from outside:
“OPEN THE DOOR!”
Vanessa’s face emptied.
She stepped backward.
“Who the hell is that?!”
May you like
The door shook again.
And through the acrylic, Evelyn smiled.
