Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE I PAID FOR
The county records showed Beatrice as a fifty-percent owner of my home.
The transfer documents carried my electronic signature.
They were dated on a day I had been attending a wellness conference in Miami.
Peter had notarized them.
The estate had been purchased almost entirely with revenue from my first two spas.
Julian contributed less than five percent of the original payment.
Yet because I placed his name on the deed, he had legal leverage.
Rachel filed an emergency fraud action.
The court froze any sale or refinancing of the property.
Beatrice responded by arriving at the estate with a locksmith.
She stood at the gate holding ownership papers.
“You cannot remove me from my own property.”
I watched her through the security monitor.
The same woman who once cried when I gave her a designer handbag was now trying to enter the house I had paid for.
I spoke through the intercom.
“You are not coming inside.”
“I own half.”
“You own a forged signature.”
“That has not been proven.”
“It will be.”
She smiled toward the camera.
“You always believed money made you powerful.”
“No.”
“I believed love made us family.”
“That was the expensive mistake.”
Her attorney filed a claim accusing me of denying a lawful owner access.
News reporters appeared outside the gate within hours.
Someone had leaked the jacuzzi story.
The headline described me as a jealous spa owner who imprisoned her husband and employee.
It did not mention the forged documents.
It did not mention the pills.
It did not mention the files stolen from my business.
Julian’s public statement called the affair “an emotional mistake.”
He claimed I had secretly monitored him for years.
He claimed the camera footage had been edited.
Mia’s name was withheld.
Mine was not.
Clients began calling the spas.
Some supported me.
Others canceled memberships.
North Crest quietly approached my minority investors and offered to purchase their shares.
The conspiracy had continued even after the affair was exposed.
Julian did not need to steal the company all at once.
He only needed to damage my reputation until investors panicked.
I called an emergency meeting.
My management team gathered at the flagship spa.
Several employees looked frightened.
I stood before them without prepared notes.
“My husband betrayed me.”
“My employee stole confidential files.”
“Members of his family attempted to sell this company without my permission.”
“I will not insult you by pretending everything is fine.”
The room remained silent.
Then my first receptionist, Denise, raised her hand.
“I have worked for you since the leaking-sink location.”
“I am not selling my shares.”
One by one, others agreed.
North Crest failed to gain enough support.
That evening, Mia arrived at the spa.
She wore borrowed clothes and carried the same duffel bag she had brought to my home.
Security stopped her.
I agreed to speak with her in the lobby.
“I have nowhere to go,” she said.
“That is not my responsibility anymore.”
“I can help you.”
“You already helped Julian.”
“He recorded everything.”
I looked at her.
“What everything?”
“He kept cameras in the guesthouse.”
“He made videos of Beatrice and Peter discussing the sale.”
“Why?”
“In case they tried to cut him out.”
Julian had collected evidence against his own family.
Mia knew where it was stored.
She offered me the password.
In exchange, she wanted money and immunity from a civil lawsuit.
I stared at the young woman I had once promised to help.
“You are negotiating with the person you betrayed.”
“I am trying to survive.”
“So am I.”
She gave me the first half of the password.
May you like
Then she whispered something that changed the case.
“Julian has a son.”
