Chapter 4 - THE SIGNATURE
Caleb took the paper from Melissa.
His eyes widened.
“Dad, what is this?”
Ron reached for it.
Caleb pulled it away.
“Answer me.”
Ron’s confidence cracked.
“It’s nothing.”
“It has Erin’s signature.”
“It’s administrative.”
“I never signed it,” I said.
Nobody spoke.
Ron pointed at me.
“She’s medicated.”
I actually smiled.
It was the first time I had smiled since reaching home.
“You think pain medication makes me forget my own signature?”
He opened his mouth.
“Don’t.”
I pulled out my phone and photographed every page.
The document supposedly gave Ron Bailey authority to manage my property, collect short-term lodging fees, enter agreements on my behalf, and “make reasonable occupancy arrangements.”
It was so absurd I almost couldn’t understand the purpose.
Then Melissa found the next page.
A printed confirmation from a vacation-rental website.
My address.
My home.
Listed as a six-bedroom “executive family retreat.”
I only had four bedrooms.
Apparently, Ron had counted my office and recovery room.
There were future bookings.
Three weekends in April.
Two in May.
One during Memorial Day weekend.
I stared at the dates.
“You rented my house to strangers?”
Ron shook his head.
“Not strangers. Mostly referrals.”
“That is not better.”
Caleb sank into a dining chair.
“How long?”
Ron stayed quiet.
Melissa picked up more printouts.
“Since January.”
January.
I had been eight months pregnant.
I thought of the weekends Caleb had casually mentioned his parents visiting while I spent Saturdays preparing the nursery.
Then I remembered something.
In February, I had returned from a prenatal appointment and found the downstairs bathroom towels changed.
Caleb said his mother had done laundry.
One week later, a decorative bowl disappeared.
Ron claimed one of the kids probably broke it at Christmas.
There had been people staying in my home.
And I had never known.
“Caleb,” I said.
He looked up.
“Did you know about these bookings?”
“No.”
I studied him.
This time I believed him.
He looked genuinely horrified.
Ron suddenly grabbed his briefcase.
“Everybody needs to calm down.”
Melissa blocked him.
“No.”
And that was when Grace began crying.
I reached for her instinctively.
But before I could take one step, my vision tilted.
The room blurred.
My knees weakened.
Melissa caught my arm.
“Erin?”
Caleb stood.
Blood had started spreading across the front of my gray sweatpants.
His face went white.
“Call 911.”
While everyone panicked, Ron slipped something from the briefcase into his coat.
I saw it.
May you like
A small blue envelope.
And before the paramedics arrived, Ron disappeared through my back door.
