My ex-husband’s new wife came to my late father’s house and ordered me to start packing—three weeks after I buried him
PART 2:
Kyle turned pale the moment he saw the photograph in Paige’s hand. He demanded to know where she had found it, but Paige refused to answer. Before he could explain why he was afraid, Penelope’s black Lincoln pulled into the driveway.
Penelope stepped out, saw Kyle, and immediately ordered him to leave. When he insisted he was family, she looked him directly in the eyes and said, “Then you should be ashamed.” Kyle tried to defend himself, claiming Everett had been confused and heavily medicated during his final weeks.
Inside Everett’s study, Penelope finally revealed the truth. Calvin and Kyle had arranged a new will that gave the house to Calvin, two million dollars to Kyle, and only one dollar to Paige. But Everett had never truly agreed to any of it.
Penelope explained that Everett knew they were drugging him. Kyle had secretly crushed sleeping tablets into his tea, believing the medication would make his father easier to control. Everett pretended to be helpless because he was gathering evidence against them.
Then Penelope mentioned something even darker—the Rose Ledger. It was a diary written by Paige’s mother during the final year of her life. Inside it, she had recorded suspicions that someone with the initials C.M. was stealing money from the family business.
The diary had disappeared from Everett’s safe six months earlier. Everett believed Kyle had taken it, but no one knew why he would steal a diary written before he was old enough to understand its secrets. Penelope warned Paige that the house was only bait in a much larger trap.
The next afternoon, everyone gathered in Penelope’s office for the will reading. Calvin arrived in a perfect charcoal suit, Tabitha sat beside him in cream silk, and Kyle avoided Paige’s eyes. Penelope read the forged document exactly as they expected.
The house went to Calvin. Kyle received two million dollars, while Paige was left only one dollar. Tabitha could barely hide her satisfaction and told Paige she would have thirty days to leave.
Then Penelope announced that the signature had to be authenticated. She played a video showing Everett barely conscious while Calvin placed a pen in his hand. Calvin proudly insisted the footage proved Everett had signed willingly.
But Penelope had a second recording from a hidden camera in the bookshelf. It showed Kyle collecting the papers after the others stopped filming. Then Calvin laughed and said, “The old man won’t remember any of this.”
Suddenly, Everett opened his eyes. He stood without help, walked to the desk, and held the signed document toward the hidden camera. Instead of his own name, he had written five devastating words: “CALVIN MERCER IS A THIEF.”
Calvin jumped from his chair and accused Penelope of entrapment. She calmly told him the recording was evidence of fraud, elder abuse, and conspiracy. Then she revealed that Everett had not died solely from pancreatic cancer.
A toxicology report had found another substance in his blood. Before anyone could stop her, Tabitha whispered, “But I only changed the dosage once.” The entire room went silent as she realized she had just confessed.
