Chapter 1 - READ THE DEED
Lillian Moore could barely speak.
That was what Marcus Caldwell was counting on.
She stood in the mansion entrance between her fourteen-year-old twins, Noah and Lucas, one trembling hand pressed against the fresh white dressing across the front of her throat.
Marcus came toward them holding a short wooden stick.
“Get out of my house!”
He struck Lillian once across her guarded upper arm.
She recoiled.
Then he slammed the stick against the marble floor beside Noah’s shoes.
Crack.
Again beside Lucas.
The boys moved behind their mother.
“Mom,” Noah whispered.
Lillian spread both arms in front of them.
Marcus struck the entry table.
Then the doorframe.
“You have nothing here!”
He drove them backward through the open doorway without striking either boy.
Snow blew across the steps.
Lillian was barefoot beneath her camel coat.
Lucas clutched his backpack.
Noah stayed close enough to catch her if she fell.
Marcus stood inside the warm doorway.
He pointed the stick toward the dressing on her throat.
“You can’t even fight back.”
Then he slammed the door.
The new electronic lock clicked.
Lillian stared at it.
Her eyes filled.
Not helpless tears.
Furious ones.
Headlights swept across the snow.
A black sedan stopped at the curb.
Julian Ashford stepped out carrying a thick sealed legal folder.
He saw Lillian barefoot.
Saw the twins.
Saw the dressing.
His entire expression changed.
He walked directly to her.
“Lillian.”
She tried to speak.
Only air came out.
Julian broke the seal and removed a recorded property document.
He placed it in her hands.
“He never owned this house.”
The front door opened again.
Marcus stepped outside.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Lillian climbed the steps.
Marcus raised the stick slightly.
She did not stop.
She slapped the folded deed across his face.
Then opened it and pressed it against his chest.
Her finger landed on the ownership line.
Lillian Anne Moore.
Sole grantee.
Marcus looked down.
Then at her.
Lillian forced sound through her damaged, healing throat.
Rough.
Broken.
Enough.
“My house.”
Marcus went still.
Julian looked at the stick in his hand.
May you like
Then said:
“And now we discuss why you thought you could throw the owner into the snow.”
