THE CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN SABOTAGE AND THE MOTHER WHO SAW IT ALL

I didn't think. I reacted.

I shoved my car into gear, stomped on the gas, and swerved across the street, slamming my brakes right behind David Hayes’s grey sedan, blocking them in.

David spun around, his hand instinctively reaching toward the inside of his cheap suit jacket.

Jessamine screamed.

I threw my door open and stepped out onto the cracked pavement.

“You aren't going anywhere,” I said, my voice echoing off the brick buildings.

Jessamine ripped her sunglasses off. “Are you insane? You followed us?”

“Give me the envelope, Jessamine.”

David stepped between us. He was taller than I expected, with a cold, predatory look in his eyes. He didn't look like a loving father. He looked like a man who had spent his life taking things that didn't belong to him.

“Get back in your car, lady,” David said, his voice low and gravelly. “This doesn't concern you.”

“You stole the deed to my daughter’s property,” I said, refusing to back down. “It absolutely concerns me.”

“It’s a piece of paper,” David sneered. “She can get another one printed. But she can’t sell it without the original title signature. Which we forged yesterday.”

I felt sick.

They had forged Verity’s signature to transfer the property title. They were going to sell the cabin out from under her before she even realized it was gone.

“You’re con artists,” I said.

“We’re opportunists,” David corrected. “Your son was a walking bank account with a bleeding heart. My daughter just gave him a sad story to listen to.”

Jessamine looked at me, no longer bothering to hide the venom in her face.

“I hated every second in that house,” she spat. “I hated the family dinners. I hated your perfect, whining daughter. Do you know how hard it was to pretend to care about her stupid engagement?”

“You didn't have to pretend,” I said. “You could have just walked away.”

“And leave all that money on the table?” She laughed. “Emory practically handed me his credit cards. But the trust fund was taking too long. So we accelerated the timeline.”

“By pawning her ring? By destroying her party?”

“The party was just a bonus,” Jessamine smirked. “I couldn't stand looking at her smug face anymore.”

David grabbed her arm. “Shut up. Let’s go.”

He tried to push past me to get to the driver’s side of his car.

But I didn't move.

“Move,” he growled.

“No.”

He shoved me hard. I stumbled backward, my shoulder hitting the brick wall of the dry cleaners. Pain flared, but I didn't fall.

Before David could open his door, the screech of tires tore through the street.

Emory’s SUV slammed to a halt next to my car.

My son jumped out, his face pale with absolute rage. Mark was right behind him.

Emory had put a tracker on Jessamine’s phone months ago when she claimed she kept losing it. I had forgotten completely. He must have seen my car stopped at the same location.

Emory looked at the man standing next to his wife.

“So,” Emory said, his voice deadly quiet. “The dead father rises.”

David looked at Emory, then at Mark. He calculated the odds. Two younger, angry men against him. He raised his hands in a mock surrender.

“Hey, kid,” David said. “No hard feelings. It’s just business.”

Emory walked right up to him and drove his fist directly into David’s jaw.

David crumpled to the pavement like a sack of stones.

Jessamine shrieked and dropped the manila envelope.

Emory didn't even look at her. He bent down, picked up the envelope, and opened it. He pulled out the forged deed. He tore it into pieces and let it flutter to the dirty sidewalk.

“Emory, please!” Jessamine cried, trying to grab his arm. “He made me do it! My dad forced me! He said he would hurt me if I didn't get the money!”

Emory looked at his wife. The woman he had shared a bed with. The woman he had loved.

“Stop lying, Jessamine. I’m done. We’re done.”

He turned to me. “Mom, are you okay?”

I nodded, clutching my shoulder. “I’m fine.”

Mark stepped forward. He looked at Jessamine cowering against the car.

“Where is the pawn ticket?” Mark demanded.

“I don't have it! I lost it!”

“You dropped it in my mother’s dining room,” Mark said coldly. “We already went to the pawn shop this morning. We bought the ring back. But the owner gave us something else, too.”

Mark reached into his pocket.

He pulled out a heavy, gold Rolex watch.

Emory gasped. “My dad’s watch.”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “She pawned that, too.”

Jessamine sank against the side of the car, defeated.

Emory looked at the watch, the last piece of his father he had left.

“The police are on their way,” Emory said to his wife. “I called them when I saw the GPS stop here. They’re very interested in the sixty thousand dollars you wired offshore. Turns out, the bank flagged it for fraud because you forged my signature on the wire transfer.”

Jessamine’s eyes widened in sheer terror.

Police sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.

David groaned on the pavement, trying to sit up.

I looked down at Jessamine.

“I told you sweet revenge was coming,” I whispered.

But as the police cruisers rounded the corner, lights flashing, David Hayes suddenly reached into his coat pocket.

He didn't pull out a weapon.

He pulled out a small, black velvet box.

He threw it at Emory’s feet.

“Take it!” David spat blood onto the pavement. “Take the damn thing. It’s not worth going to prison for.”

Emory picked up the box. He opened it.