Chapter 5: Glen’s Offer
I returned after Emily fell asleep in a private observation room.
Mark stayed with her while Dr.
Patel monitored her fever.
Glen was waiting in the kitchen with a folder.
“Where is Emily?” he asked.
“With someone who cared enough to help.”
“I’m her father.”
“Then start acting like one.”
He pushed the folder across the table.
“Sign the house-sale agreement, and tonight never needs to become uglier.”
I left it untouched.
“You forged my name on a loan application.”
“You gave me access to the account.”
“Access is not permission.”
“You haven’t earned much in months, Laura.
I carried this family.”
“I reduced my hours because Emily needed me.”
“You made that choice.”
“We made it together.”
Glen leaned forward.
“Sign, or I’ll use what happened tonight in court.
Fifteen witnesses saw you deliberately terrify me in front of our daughter.”
“Emily wasn’t in the room.”
“But she heard the screaming.
A judge won’t like that.”
“You filled the house with shouting men while she had a fever.”
“I was hosting friends.
You created the danger.”
The front door opened, and Vanessa walked into the kitchen without knocking.
She stopped when she saw me.
“Glen said you were at the hospital,” she murmured.
“I was.
My daughter is sick.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You said she had recovered.”
“She was fine until Laura upset everyone.”
“Stop using Emily,” I said.
“Tell me why Vanessa has my loan application.”
Vanessa set her handbag down.
“He told me you had agreed to refinance before the divorce.”
“What divorce?”
Her face changed.
“He said you filed six months ago.”
Glen stood.
“Vanessa, this isn’t the time.”
“No,” she said.
“You told me she refused to accept the marriage was over.”
I pulled out my phone.
“Say that again.”
Glen knocked it from my hand.
It skidded beneath a chair.
“Enough recording,” he said.
Vanessa stared at him.
“What have you done?”
“Nothing she can prove.”
The words hung between us.
I bent and picked up my phone.
Its screen had cracked, but it was still working.
“You moved $28,400,” I said.
“Where is it?”
“It paid a debt.”
“What debt?”
“That isn’t your concern.”
“If you used our savings, it is.”
He opened the folder and pointed to the final page.
“Sign the sale agreement, take ten thousand dollars, and leave with Emily.
Refuse, and I’ll seek full custody.”
Vanessa stepped back.
“You told me Emily would live with you.”
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Her lips parted, but no words came.
Glen shoved a pen toward me.
“You have until morning.”
I picked it up.
His shoulders relaxed.
Then I drew a line through the signature box and wrote: I DO NOT CONSENT.
“You’ll regret that,” he said.
“No.
You will.”
His smile returned as he lifted another sheet from the folder.
It was a temporary custody petition bearing tomorrow morning’s court stamp.
May you like
“I filed first,” he said.
“And until a judge hears your side, Emily comes home with me.”
