Paying three hundred thousand dollars of debt before being ordered out of the house
I picked up the damp kitchen dish towel from the edge of the sink and folded it neatly, smoothing the fabric with the palm of my hand.
“I will need my personal files from the study,” I said, my voice remaining entirely calm.
“Only what is strictly yours, Clare,” Evelyn said, her hand resting on the back of Marcus’s chair as she watched me. “We will be auditing the inventory of the house before anything leaves the property.”
I set the damp dish towel down on the marble counter, looking at the three of them standing in her kitchen doorway.
I walked past Marcus without looking at his face, my shoulder brushing his sleeve as I reached for my coat on the peg.
The driveway was dark, and the headlights of my sedan cut through the cold mist rising from the lawn.
An hour later, the metal key to room fourteen of the Pine Crest Motel turned stiffly in the lock.
I set my single suitcase on the luggage rack and opened my laptop on the laminated oak desk.
