Chapter 4 - THE VEHICLE OUTSIDE
The workshop’s garage door shifted upward from the outside.
Mara entered first, carrying a leather document case. Behind her came Marcus, Nina and two deputies responding to the silent panic alarm.
Diane stepped away from me.
“This is a private family matter.”
One deputy looked at my swollen lip, the disturbed sawdust and the overturned stool near my feet.
“Ma’am, place your hands where I can see them.”
Diane’s outrage sharpened.
“She attacked me.”
The workshop cameras had recorded otherwise.
Three cameras covered the production floor for insurance and workplace-safety reasons. A fourth faced the side entrance after a burglary attempt the previous year.
They had recorded Diane using the copied key.
They had recorded Scott entering behind her.
They had recorded the first demand, both slaps, the hair pulling and his failure to intervene.
The hidden switch preserved the previous fifteen minutes of audio and video in a protected remote folder before alerting the monitoring service.
Scott looked at the amber light.
“You recorded us?”
“I secured my business.”
“We’re married.”
“That does not give you permission to sell it.”
Mara retrieved the agreement from beneath the cabinet using gloved hands and opened the final page.
Scott stared at my signature beneath the trust’s name.
“You set us up.”
“No. You approached a broker with property you did not own. I allowed you to finish explaining what you intended to do.”
Diane pointed at me.
“She owes this family fifty thousand dollars.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“Your husband borrowed it.”
“Then pursue your borrower.”
Scott finally stepped toward me.
“Laura, I was going to repay her.”
“With what?”
He looked around the workshop.
That was the answer.
Diane’s plan had never been a simple debt settlement.
Mara removed another document from her case.
It was a county planning notice showing a proposed freight-distribution corridor near the property.
Diane had received the same information through a friend employed by a commercial developer.
A warehouse chain had discussed paying more than $1.8 million for land in the immediate area.
Diane planned to obtain my business for fifty thousand, remove the machinery and resell the land.
Messages between her and Calvin Price estimated her profit at more than one million dollars after fees.
Scott knew there was a potential redevelopment offer.
He claimed he did not know the amount.
A message on his phone later contradicted him.
Once she signs, Mom sells the land and I get my fifty back plus enough to start over.
May you like
He had not betrayed me only to settle a debt.
He planned to use the business I built as capital for his next life.
