Chapter 7 - The Hidden Floorboard
Gavin didn’t come into the master bedroom. The heavy footsteps stomped past us, heading straight toward the back of the house.
Toward my room.
"What is he doing?" Alyssa whispered, her eyes wide with panic.
I didn't answer. I stood up and hurried down the hall, the beam of my flashlight bouncing against the walls. When I reached the doorway of my small room, I stopped.
Gavin was tearing my room apart.
He had flipped my mattress onto the floor. He was yanking drawers out of my desk, dumping my clothes and old photographs onto the ground.
"Gavin! Stop!" I demanded.
"Where is it?!" he shouted, frantically throwing my winter coats out of the small closet. "Dad always kept a cash reserve! He told me when I was a teenager! Where is the emergency box, Mom?!"
He wasn't just a desperate man anymore. He was a dangerous one.
"There is no box, Gavin," I lied smoothly.
"Don't lie to me!" he screamed, turning to face me. His eyes were wide, panicked. "I owe dangerous people, Mom! Not just credit cards! I borrowed money to cover the crypto losses, and they want it back by Friday! I need Dad's money!"
My breath caught in my throat. Loan sharks. That's why he was so frantic to get the deed.
Alyssa appeared behind me in the hallway, limping slightly. "You borrowed money from criminals?" she asked, her voice hollow.
Gavin ignored her. He dropped to his knees and started ripping up the edges of the old carpet in my closet.
He was getting close.
Walter did have an emergency fund. Not a box, but a floorboard safe. He had built it under the closet floor thirty years ago. It contained fifty thousand dollars in cash, gold coins, and Walter's vintage Rolex. It was our ultimate safety net.
If Gavin found it, it was gone forever.
I gripped the brass wrench in my pocket. I had to distract him.
"Gavin," I said loudly. "If you take that money, I will call the police and tell them about the property tax fraud. You'll go to federal prison."
He stopped tearing at the carpet. He slowly stood up, turning to face me. There was something cold and detached in his eyes now. A terrifying shift.
"It won't be fraud if you're not around to testify," he said softly.
Alyssa gasped.
He took a step toward me.
Suddenly, flashing red and blue lights swept across the window of my bedroom, casting eerie shadows across Gavin's face.
A loud, authoritative knock hammered on the front door.
"Police! Open up!" a deep voice boomed.
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Gavin froze, the blood draining from his face. "Did you call them?!" he hissed at me.
"I didn't have to," Alyssa said from the hallway, holding up her cell phone. The screen glowed in the dark. "I dialed 911 the second you stormed back into the house."
