Chapter 7 - The Confrontation Across Town
The drive to Nia’s sister’s house took twenty minutes through the grey, slush-covered streets of the city. Marcus drove in silence, his knuckles white against the steering wheel, while Ava sat quietly in the passenger seat, staring out at the passing storefronts. They pulled up in front of a modest suburban duplex with peeling white paint and a small, overgrown front yard. Nia’s green velvet dress was nowhere in sight, but her battered sedan was parked neatly in the driveway, confirming that she had arrived and settled in.
Marcus stepped out of the car, adjusting his brown blazer against the biting wind, and walked up the concrete walkway. Before he could even lift his hand to knock on the front door, it swung open. It wasn't Nia who stood in the entryway, but her older sister, Brenda—a stern-looking woman with similar sharp features and a no-nonsense posture.
“I know why you’re here, Marcus,” Brenda said before he could speak, crossing her arms over her chest. “Nia is inside, and she’s already called a lawyer about those court papers.”
Marcus kept his voice remarkably calm, though his jaw muscles ticked with suppressed fury. “Brenda, she forged my signature on a commercial lien against our home. That’s not a marital dispute; that’s a felony. If she doesn't sign a notarized confession today revoking that loan, I’m walking straight to the precinct with these documents.”
Nia appeared behind her sister, stepping into the doorway wearing a simple grey sweater instead of her velvet dress. Her eyes were hard, lacking any trace of remorse. “Go ahead and call the police, Marcus! Tell them your wife tried to keep your family afloat while you were too busy working eighty-hour weeks to notice that the world was collapsing around you! If I go down for fraud, I’m making sure the court audits every penny you’ve hidden in your side accounts!”
Marcus stared at her, genuinely shocked by the sheer scale of her denial. “I don't have side accounts, Nia. Every dollar I’ve earned has gone into our joint ledger.”
“You think so?” Nia laughed bitterly, stepping past her sister onto the porch. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded pink slip of paper, waving it in the cold air. “My lawyer found an offshore credit union account registered in your name with a balance of twenty-thousand dollars that you’ve been hiding from me since the day Ava was born.”
May you like
Ava, who had walked up behind Marcus, gasped softly. Marcus froze, staring at the pink paper in Nia’s hand, realizing with absolute horror that the document looked entirely authentic.
---
