Chapter 2 - The Empty Fortress
The house was dark when I arrived. It was a sprawling, five-bedroom estate we had purchased three years ago. Mark loved showing it off to his tech friends. He didn't know I had spent the last five months quietly transferring my name off the vulnerable joint accounts and moving my assets into an iron-clad trust.
I poured myself a single glass of bourbon and sat on the leather sofa.
Twenty minutes later, the front door rattled. Mark burst in. His lucky gray suit was torn at the shoulder. He had a split lip from where Evan had elbowed him during the scuffle.
"Sarah!" he yelled, his chest heaving. "Sarah, you have to listen to me!"
I took a slow sip of my drink. "I’m listening."
He fell to his knees in front of the coffee table. The arrogance was gone, replaced by the desperate, pleading look of a cornered animal. "It was a mistake. A stupid, meaningless mistake. She threw herself at me, Sarah! I was stressed with the new app launch, and she was just... there."
"She is my sister," I stated, my voice completely devoid of emotion.
"I know, I know! It’s sick, it’s wrong! But we can fix this. We can go to counseling. I’ll cut her off completely. And the baby isn’t even mine! You heard Evan! She played us both!"
I placed the glass down. As a former detective, I knew a liar's tell. Mark's tell was his hands. Whenever he lied, he rubbed his thumbs against his index fingers. He was doing it now.
"Mark, stop," I said quietly.
"I love you!" he sobbed.
"You don't love me," I replied, standing up. "You love the lifestyle my pension and my investments provided while your little startup bled money. By the way, the locks are being changed tomorrow at 8:00 AM. Your bags are already packed in the garage. Leave the keys on the counter."
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"You can't kick me out of my own house!" he snarled, the sadness instantly turning to rage.
"I can," I said, pulling a folded legal document from my purse. "Because while you were spending weekends in Denver with my sister, I was finalizing the purchase of the deed. I own this house outright now. Get out, Mark. Before I call my former colleagues to escort you."
