Chapter 3 - The Secret Entry
I told the taxi driver to pull over two streets away from my actual address.
I did not want the headlights or the sound of the engine to alert the thieves inside my home.
I paid the driver with cash and quietly woke my children in the backseat.
They held my hands tightly as we walked through the freezing shadows of the suburban neighborhood.
We approached the house from the overgrown alleyway behind the backyard fence.
Ryan had always been lazy, and I knew he would never bother to check the perimeter.
My grandmother always kept a hidden spare key inside a hollow, fake brick near the foundation.
Ryan never knew about this secret because Grandma never trusted him with anything important.
I knelt in the damp grass and slid the fake brick out from the wall.
The heavy brass key was waiting right where she had left it for me years ago.
I unlocked the rusted basement door and slowly pushed it open without making a single sound.
The three of us slipped into the pitch-black basement, surrounded by the smell of damp earth.
I could hear the heavy footsteps of Ryan and my mother walking across the floorboards right above us.
They were talking loudly, completely arrogant in their assumption that they had won.
My mother announced that the notary was arriving in ten minutes to finalize the fraudulent paperwork.
Ryan laughed and said he had paid the notary a massive bribe to look the other way.
I heard the front doorbell ring, followed by the heavy thud of the front door opening.
A booming, familiar voice greeted my brother with a warm and friendly tone.
May you like
I felt a sickening knot form in my stomach as I recognized the voice immediately.
The corrupt notary they had hired was the local chief of police.
