Chapter 1 - The Red Blinking Light
The keypad flashed red the moment I entered my code.
I stood on the porch in the freezing rain with my newborn daughter sleeping against my chest.
My heavy hospital bag sat beside my swollen feet as I stared at the thick wooden door.
This was the beautiful home that I had purchased with my own money before our wedding.
And my husband had just locked me out.
I called Daniel three times before he finally decided to answer his phone.
Loud laughter and the sound of crashing ocean waves echoed clearly in the background.
I whispered that the code was not working because I did not want to wake the baby.
His mother asked loudly in the background if I was standing outside in the wet rain.
Daniel sighed heavily into the receiver as if my suffering were a massive inconvenience to him.
He calmly admitted that he had changed the door code while I was recovering in the hospital.
My throat tightened as the cold rain soaked completely through my thin jacket.
He told me that I needed to learn boundaries and stop acting like the house was only mine.
I reminded him quietly that the house actually belonged entirely to me.
He laughed cruelly and told me not to use my emotional lawyer talk on him.
His sister yelled in the background that they were already checking into the luxury resort.
Daniel casually explained that his mother needed a break from all of my recent pregnancy drama.
He told me to stay with my sister because they were relaxing in Cabo for ten days.
I reminded him with a shaking voice that our daughter was only three days old.
He told me to act like a real mother and handle it before hanging up the phone.
He thought locking me outside while I was exhausted meant that I had absolutely no power.
He completely forgot that I was a senior real estate attorney before I ever became his wife.
I understood property contracts and legal paperwork far better than anyone in his entire family.
I called my assistant Vivian and told her to contact our aggressive cash buyer immediately.
I told her with complete certainty that I was selling the Hillcrest house today.
May you like
Vivian gasped and told me that she had just discovered a massive legal problem.
She revealed that Daniel had quietly filed a forged quitclaim deed with the county clerk yesterday morning.
