Chapter 3 - The Order to Vacate
"What did you just say?" Vanessa sneered, crossing her arms over her soaked dress. "You're kicking us out? In the middle of a Sunday dinner?"
"I'm not asking you to leave, Vanessa," I replied, pulling my leather binder from the entryway console table. "I am evicting you. Right now."
"You can't evict us!" Margaret yelled, taking a heavy step toward me. "My apartment building had a water main burst! We have nowhere else to go! Daniel, tell her! Tell her this is your home too!"
Daniel looked at his mother, then looked at me, his breath coming in short, panicked ragged gasps.
"Claire, please," Daniel said, reaching out to touch my arm. "Don't do this. Mom's apartment really did have a leak. They just need a few more days until the repairs are done. We can fix the bank thing! I'll cancel the application tomorrow morning!"
I stepped back, avoiding his touch as if his hand were coated in poison.
"The application is already canceled, Daniel," I told him. "And the bank's legal team has already filed an emergency fraud report with the county sheriff's office."
Vanessa let out a sharp, horrified gasp. "The sheriff?!"
"You called the police on your own husband?!" Daniel screamed, his face flushing crimson once again. "Over a loan application?! I was doing it for us! Vanessa and Greg need capital to start their logistics franchise! We were going to pay it back in six months!"
"With what?" I asked, looking at Greg—Vanessa's husband—who had been sitting silently in the corner of the dining room the entire time, staring at his shoes. "Greg hasn't held a job in fourteen months. Vanessa's boutique went bankrupt last year. You were gambling my house on a failed business venture without my knowledge, without my consent, and through identity theft."
"You arrogant little bitch!" Margaret shrieked, lunging forward with her hands raised as if to scratch my face. "You think you're better than us because you have money?! You're nothing! You're just an orphan who got lucky with some stupid computer software! You owe everything to my son for making you part of a real family!"
I didn't flinch. I opened my binder, pulled out a thick stack of printed documents, and laid them flat on the marble dining table.
"Page four of our prenuptial agreement," I said calmly. "Clause 12-B: 'In the event of attempted unauthorized encumbrance, forgery, or financial fraud committed by either spouse against separate property assets, all guest occupancy rights, spousal co-residence privileges, and temporary lease grants are immediately voided without thirty days' notice'."
I looked directly at Daniel.
"I signed that prenup. You signed that prenup. Your father's attorney reviewed that prenup."
"I don't care about your stupid paper!" Margaret roared, grabbing a glass vase from the side table and smashing it onto the hardwood floor. Shards of crystal exploded everywhere. "We are not leaving! This is my son's house! Try to move us and I'll call the news stations! I'll tell everyone in this city how Claire Bennett treats an elderly woman!"
"You don't have to call the news stations, Margaret," I said softly, tapping a button on my smartwatch.
From the ceiling corners of the living room, four tiny blue lights blinked twice.
"The high-definition security system in this house records audio and video forty-eight hours continuously," I explained. "It captured your speech about making me kneel. It captured Vanessa carrying the basin. It captured Daniel admitting to the bank fraud. And it just captured you smashing my grandfather's antique crystal vase."
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Margaret froze, her eyes darting up toward the ceiling corners in sheer horror.
"You have ten minutes to gather your clothes," I said, my voice turning as cold as steel. "If you are still inside my home when the clock on that wall hits 6:30 PM, I will press charges for felony forgery, destruction of property, and criminal trespass."
