Chapter 16 - The Confrontation at the Porch
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The following afternoon, while Leona was preparing a pot of soup in the kitchen, a sharp, aggressive knock sounded at the front door.
Leona wiped her hands on a dish towel, walked down the hallway, and opened the door.
Valerie stood on the porch once again. She looked thinner, her eyes dark-rimmed and fierce, wearing a black trench coat.
"I know he's here," Valerie said, her voice low and dangerous. "I saw the transport van pull in yesterday."
"He is resting," Leona said, standing firmly in the doorway. "And you need to leave."
"I have a signed contract for the Michigan property, Leona!" Valerie shouted, taking a step closer, pulling a folded paper from her coat. "Russell signed over his rights to the lake house to my LLC last week before his speech degraded! I own fifty percent of that land, and I am going to sell it!"
Leona looked at the paper in Valerie's hand, then raised her eyes with cold amusement.
"Did he sign that while he was in the ICU?" Leona asked softly.
Valerie froze, her throat working silently.
"Because," Leona continued, stepping out onto the porch and closing the door behind her, "a stroke patient on heavy narcotics in an ICU unit lacks legal capacity to execute property transfers. My attorney filed an emergency injunction this morning freeze all assets connected to that LLC."
Valerie's jaw dropped. "You can't do that!"
"I already did," Leona whispered, leaning in close. "And if you come near my house, my husband, or my daughter again, I will have the fraud unit audit every single transaction your real estate firm completed with his stolen money."
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Valerie stared at Leona as if seeing her clearly for the first time—not a timid, abandoned wife, but a master strategist who had been waiting in the shadows for six years.
Valerie turned on her heel and ran down the driveway without looking back.
