Chapter 9 - FORTY-EIGHT HOURS
Evan used thirty-six of his forty-eight hours pretending the order did not exist.
On the first day, he sent Delilah eleven messages.
You’re making a mistake.
Your mother is using you.
Noah needs his father.
Call me before this gets ugly.
Rita told Delilah not to respond.
On the second day, Judith called me from three different numbers.
I didn’t answer once.
Then, at 7:40 p.m., my doorbell camera at Delilah’s house sent a motion alert to my phone.
I opened the app.
Evan was on the porch, carrying boxes.
Judith stood behind him, furious, while Amber loaded suitcases into a rideshare. She glanced at the camera once and mouthed something.
I played it back twice.
Sorry.
I believed her.
Not completely. But enough.
By 8:15, Officer Hale arrived to supervise the move-out. Rita had requested it. Evan was not pleased.
“This is humiliating,” he said into the camera.
I watched from the hotel room while Delilah sat beside me, unable to look away.
Judith turned toward the doorbell camera.
“You are enjoying this, Lydia?”
I pressed the microphone button.
“No,” I said. “I enjoyed buying that house for my daughter. This is just cleanup.”
Delilah gave a startled laugh through tears.
Judith’s face contorted.
Then she leaned close to the camera.
“You think you won because some judge signed a paper? Families are not destroyed in courtrooms, Lydia. They are destroyed slowly. Your daughter is weak. She will call my son before the month ends.”
Delilah’s laughter died.
I looked at her.
“Don’t let her inside your head.”
She shook her head.
“I know. I just… hear her voice even when she’s not there.”
“I know.”
At 9:03, Evan carried out a box labeled OFFICE.
Rita, watching remotely on her own laptop, called me immediately.
“Tell Officer Hale to check that box if it contains documents belonging to you or Delilah.”
I used the doorbell speaker.
“Officer Hale, the office box may contain disputed records.”
Evan froze.
Officer Hale stepped forward.
“Sir, please set that down.”
Evan’s face changed.
Not annoyance.
Fear.
Judith moved quickly.
“That is personal property.”
Officer Hale held out his hand.
“Set it down.”
The box tore slightly when Evan dropped it. Papers spilled across the porch.
I saw my name.
Rita saw it too.
“Lydia,” she said sharply, “screenshot everything.”
Officer Hale picked up one page and read it.
Then another.
Then he looked at Evan.
“Sir, are these blank checks with Mrs. Warren’s name printed on them?”
Delilah gasped.
Evan said, “Those are old.”
Judith snapped, “You have no right—”
Officer Hale lifted a second item.
A rubber stamp.
A signature stamp.
My signature.
The room around me seemed to tilt.
Delilah whispered, “Mom…”
Rita’s voice came through the phone, low and fierce.
“That is enough for a warrant.”
On the porch camera, Evan looked directly into the lens.
For the first time, he stopped pretending.
His eyes said what his mouth didn’t.
May you like
He hated us.
And he was not finished.
