Chapter 6: The Woman in the Cottage
I didn't knock.
The cottage door was unlocked — it always was, because Wendy had stopped thinking of it as a separate space months ago.
I pushed it open and stepped inside.
She was standing at the small kitchen counter with a cup of tea, as if she had been waiting for exactly this.
Her expression didn't change when she saw me.
"I wondered when you'd come," she said.
"Sit down, Wendy."
"This is my space.
I'll stand."
"The petition," I said.
"The one you filed eleven days ago in Fairfield County.
The one naming Daniel as conservator of my assets."
She took a sip of tea.
"You've been busy."
"Daniel Callahan has been legally de@d for eight years.
A conservatorship granted to a de@d man is fraud.
You know that."
"Daniel's situation is more complicated than a piece of paper."
"It's exactly as complicated as a piece of paper.
A fraudulent one." I stepped closer.
"You moved into my home.
You used my daughter as transportation cover.
You filed a legal action against me without my knowledge.
And you threatened a seven-year-old child into keeping secrets by telling her that her mother would get h*rt if she talked."
Something shifted behind Wendy's eyes.
Not guilt.
Recalculation.
"Fiona misunderstood what I said."
"She repeated it to me word for word."
"Children that age—"
"Don't." My voice came out flat.
"Don't tell me what children that age do or don't understand.
She was terrified this morning.
She gripped the table until her knuckles turned white because she was afraid of what would happen if she told me the truth.
That is not a misunderstanding.
That is a child who has been managed."
Wendy set her cup down.
"I did what I had to do for my son," she said.
"Daniel made mistakes.
Terrible mistakes.
But he is my child, and I was not going to watch him spend the rest of his life in hiding when there was a solution available."
"My money."
"Your excess.
You wouldn't have noticed."
"That is not how the law works."
"The law." She almost smiled.
"You think the law protected Daniel when those men came for him?
You think the law gave him any option other than disappearing?
I used the tools I had available.
Just like you would have done."
"I would not have used my daughter."
The almost-smile disappeared.
"Fiona was never in any danger."
"That is not the point and you know it." I pulled out my phone and set it on the counter between us.
"I have a recording.
Forty-one seconds from outside the building this afternoon.
Your voice.
Daniel's voice.
The word *papers*.
The phrase *before he finds out*."
She looked at the phone.
"My lawyer filed an emergency response to the petition two hours ago," I said.
"Tomorrow morning, I'm meeting with a forensic accountant to determine whether any funds have already been moved.
And I've been in contact with the Fairfield County court clerk regarding the d*ath certificate used to establish Daniel's legal identity."
Wendy's hand moved to the counter edge.
She didn't grip it.
But she touched it.
"What do you want?" she said.
"I want you out of my house by tomorrow morning."
"Jessi will never—"
"Jessi doesn't make that decision.
This is my property.
The guest cottage is on my property.
You leave tomorrow, or I call the police tonight and let them sort out the fraudulent d*ath certificate, the forged petition witness statement, and whatever else your forensic trail turns up."
Her chin came up.
"You would do that to Jessi's family."
"You did this to Jessi's family.
I'm just deciding how much further it goes."
She was quiet for a long moment.
"Daniel has nowhere to go," she said finally.
It was the first thing she had said that didn't sound like a move in a game.
It sounded like a mother.
"That is a consequence of choices he made.
And choices you made." I picked up my phone.
"Tomorrow morning, Wendy.
I'll have someone here at nine to help you with your bags."
May you like
I walked back across the dark lawn.
Behind me, the cottage light went out.
