I set the pen down. “Daniel, before I sign, you should meet someone.” Right on cue, the door opened and in walked Eleanor Vance, my father’s attorney for the last forty years, flanked by two men in charcoal suits. Daniel’s smug grin flickered. “Who the hell are these people?” Eleanor didn’t even look at him. She handed me a leather folder. “Maren, as we discussed last spring, your father formally transferred the holdings into your name on his seventy-second birthday. The trust is active.” Daniel laughed, sharp and ugly. “Holdings? He fixed transmissions in a garage.” Eleanor finally turned. “Mr. Whitlow, your father-in-law sold that garage in 1994 and quietly purchased twenty-six acres of riverfront land in what is now downtown Columbus. The current valuation is forty-one million dollars. Your wife is the sole beneficiary.” The color drained from Daniel’s face like someone had pulled a plug. He grabbed for the divorce papers, suddenly desperate to crumple them. I slid them out of reach. “Actually, I think I will sign these. Just not the ones you brought.” I opened the folder. “Eleanor prepared her own version six months ago, the day I found the receipts from the Marriott in Cleveland. The texts from Brittany. The second credit card.” Daniel’s mouth moved with no sound. “You’re keeping the Tesla,” I said softly. “It’s leased in your name. The house, the accounts, the restaurant loans you put under my signature, those are being unwound by Monday.” One of the suited men stepped forward. “Mr. Whitlow, we’ll need you to vacate the residence by seven a.m. Security has already changed the locks.” Daniel looked at my father, still unconscious, and for one second I saw the boy who used to bring him coffee in the garage, before the money and the lies. “Maren, please.” I leaned down and kissed my dad’s forehead. His monitor beeped steady and strong. “Goodbye, Daniel. Thank you for finally signing something that matters.” I walked him to the elevator myself. The doors closed on the cheapest man I’d ever loved.
Follow for Part 3, where Daniel shows up at my father’s funeral with a lawyer of his own.
