Chapter 4 - THE REALTOR AT THE DOOR
The doorbell rang at four-thirty.
Daniel swore under his breath.
Ava looked at him.
“Who is that?”
He didn't answer quickly enough.
Claire closed the file.
“Daniel.”
“I know.”
He stood.
Ava followed him to the foyer.
A woman in a camel coat waited outside holding a tablet and a folder.
Real estate agent.
Of course.
Daniel opened the door halfway.
“Karen, today's not good.”
She smiled automatically.
Then saw Ava.
Claire.
Daniel's face.
The smile disappeared.
“I can come back.”
Ava stepped forward.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Ava.”
“No more private meetings.”
Karen hesitated.
“I only need ten minutes to confirm photographs and disclosure items.”
Claire stood behind Ava.
“What disclosures?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Karen looked at him.
“Daniel?”
Ava folded her arms.
The realtor understood enough to become careful.
“There is a signed listing agreement. We haven't gone live yet.”
Ava stared at her father.
“You told me it was already listed.”
Daniel said:
“It is.”
Karen corrected gently.
“Executed, not marketed.”
That distinction helped approximately nobody.
“Any offers?”
Ava asked.
“One pre-market inquiry.”
Daniel said:
“Karen.”
She stopped.
Ava looked at Claire.
“My trust has an interest in the house.”
Karen's face changed.
“Recorded?”
Claire answered.
“No.”
Karen looked at Daniel.
That was much worse than if the answer had been yes.
“Daniel, did you disclose an unrecorded ownership claim?”
“It isn't an ownership claim.”
Claire stared at him.
“Don't do that.”
“It was an advance.”
“With a conversion provision.”
Karen raised one hand.
“I need to stop this conversation.”
Correct.
She closed the tablet.
“If there may be an unrecorded equitable interest, I need our broker and title counsel involved before we market the property.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“I planned to satisfy it at closing.”
Karen looked at him.
“That should have been in the listing disclosures.”
“I was going to tell you before offers.”
“You signed yesterday.”
Ava stared.
“Yesterday?”
Daniel had been moving faster than she knew.
Karen packed her folder.
“No photographs today. I'll suspend marketing preparation.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“Don't suspend anything yet.”
Karen looked at him.
“I'm not risking a title problem.”
“The title is clean.”
Claire spoke.
“The record title might be.”
Karen stopped.
Exactly.
She left.
Daniel closed the door.
Harder than necessary.
Ava looked at him.
“You were really going to do it.”
“Sell?”
“Yes.”
“I told you.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You told me after I pulled the sign out.”
Daniel looked exhausted.
“I was trying to fix it.”
“By making me lose the house.”
“By putting your money back.”
“What if I don't want the money?”
“It's not that simple.”
“You keep saying that whenever the simple part makes you look bad.”
Claire almost smiled.
Daniel saw.
“Don't.”
Claire's smile vanished.
Ava looked between them.
“What else?”
Neither answered.
That was becoming its own answer.
Ava turned to Claire.
“You said my trust had forty-five percent.”
“Potentially.”
“Why potentially?”
“Because we never recorded it.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It makes legal sense. It just doesn't make comfortable sense.”
Claire returned to the kitchen and pulled out another document.
“Your mother wanted the property interest formalized.”
“Dad didn't.”
“No.”
Daniel interrupted.
“I intended to repay.”
Claire continued as if he had not spoken.
“Then Rachel died.”
Ava stopped.
Her mother died from pancreatic cancer when Ava was seventeen.
Eleven months between diagnosis and funeral.
Everything from that year existed in flashes.
Hospital coffee.
Her father's hands shaking while he pretended they weren't.
Claire sleeping on their couch.
Then suddenly not being there anymore.
“What changed after Mom died?”
Claire looked at Daniel.
“Everything.”
Daniel sat again.
“Rachel left instructions.”
“What kind?”
“A letter.”
Ava's chest tightened.
“To me?”
“No.”
“To Dad?”
Claire nodded.
“About the house.”
Daniel stood so abruptly the chair scraped.
“That is enough for today.”
Ava stared.
“You don't get to decide that.”
Daniel looked at her.
Something in his face was close to panic again.
Claire said quietly:
“She told him what to do if he had not repaid the trust by the time you turned twenty-one.”
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Ava's twenty-first birthday had been seven years ago.
Daniel never told her.
