Chapter 1 - Welcome Home
Avery Whitaker stood in the snow holding a red folder against her chest.
Her father, Richard, had barely stepped away from the open black SUV before he began shouting.
“What did you do to our accounts?”
Expensive luggage sat crooked across the driveway. Avery’s mother, Elaine, had lowered herself onto the snow beside two suitcases, one hand covering her face.
Caleb remained near the vehicle in a red vest, staring from his sister to the mansion as though he had returned to the wrong home.
On the front porch, Theodore Whitaker sat beneath a wool blanket in his wheelchair.
He looked smaller than the stone columns surrounding him.
He did not look weak.
Avery tightened her grip on the legal papers.
“I did what Grandpa asked me to do.”
Richard turned toward his father.
“What is she talking about?”
Theodore lifted his chin.
“I stopped letting you steal from me.”
The anger left Richard’s face so quickly that Avery almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
A sheriff’s deputy stepped onto the walkway carrying a document envelope.
“Mr. Whitaker,” he said, “you’ve been served.”
Elaine lowered her hand.
Caleb looked at his parents.
Richard stared at the envelope as though it contained something alive.
Theodore’s wheelchair creaked gently on the porch.
“Welcome home,” he said.
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One week earlier, Richard and Elaine had left Avery a handwritten note ordering her to care for the elderly man they described as helpless.
They had no idea they had just left the only two people they underestimated together in an empty house.
