Chapter 5 - THE SISTER’S CHOICE
Mallory pushed herself away from the table and stood up. She was breathing heavily, her face blotchy from crying, but the timid, eager-to-please expression she usually wore around their father was gone.
"Chris," Mallory said, her voice trembling. "Get Chloe’s coat."
Arthur turned to her, stunned. "What?"
"Get Chloe’s coat," Mallory repeated to her husband. Then she looked at her father. "We’re leaving."
"Mallory, don't be ridiculous," Arthur said, taking a step toward her, his voice suddenly shifting into a pleading, manipulative tone. "It’s Christmas Eve. Dinner is served. We haven't even carved the rest of the ham."
"I don't care about the ham, Dad," Mallory said, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. She looked down at the bank statement still resting in Chris’s hand. "How could you do this?"
"I did it for you!" Arthur declared loudly. "I did it so you and Chris could have something beautiful after everything you suffered through with your mother!"
"Don't you dare use Mom to cover up what you did!" Mallory suddenly screamed. It was a raw, visceral sound that made even Rachel startle. Mallory had spent her entire life being the quiet, compliant daughter, but now her eyes were wild with betrayal.
"You told me that money was from Grandpa!" Mallory sobbed, stepping directly into Arthur’s space. "You told me, 'Mallory, you’ve worked so hard taking care of your mother, your grandfather would have wanted you to have this home.' I sat on that deck at Lake Gaston and felt guilty because I thought Grandpa’s money should have been split with Rachel!"
"It didn't matter—" Arthur tried to interrupt.
"It matters!" Mallory yelled. "Rachel was deployed! She was on a ship in the middle of an ocean while you were writing checks out of an account she funded! Every time I asked you if we had enough money to hire an extra night nurse for Mom so I could get four hours of sleep, you told me the account was tight! You told me we had to stretch every dollar!"
Arthur swallowed hard, his mouth opening and closing silently.
"You let me burn myself out," Mallory whispered, her voice breaking into a dry sob. "You let me sit by Mom’s bed, crying from sheer exhaustion, while ninety-six thousand dollars of Rachel’s money was sitting in an escrow account for a house I didn't even need!"
"Mallory..." Arthur tried to reach out his hand to touch her arm.
"Don't touch me," she spat, taking a step back.
She turned to Rachel. Rachel was watching her sister, her expression guarded, but her eyes softening slightly as she saw the genuine horror on Mallory’s face.
"Rachel," Mallory said, her voice shaking violently. "I swear to you on everything I own... I had no idea. If I had known where that wire came from, I would have died before accepting it."
Rachel looked into her sister’s eyes. She knew Mallory. Mallory could be vain about her lifestyle, and she certainly enjoyed the luxury of the lake house, but she was not a thief. She was a woman who had been manipulated by their father just as thoroughly as Rachel had been—used as a pawn in Arthur’s ongoing game of emotional control.
"I know you didn't know, Mal," Rachel said softly.
Mallory let out a ragged breath, stepping over to Rachel and throwing her arms around her sister’s neck. Rachel held her tightly, feeling her sister tremble against her dress blue jacket.
"We’re selling the lake house," Mallory whispered into Rachel’s shoulder.
"Mallory, no!" Arthur shouted from behind them. "You are not selling that property! That is a family asset!"
Chris walked back into the room holding Chloe’s coat. His jaw was set like granite.
"It’s not a family asset, Art," Chris said, his voice flat and dangerous. "It’s a liability. We’re listing it with a realtor on Monday morning. And as soon as the closing clears, every single penny of that ninety-six thousand dollars—plus interest—is going straight into a bank account with Rachel’s name on it."
"You can't do that!" Arthur raged. "I gave you that money!"
"You didn't give it to us!" Chris snapped, stepping between Arthur and his daughter. "You stole it from Rachel’s military pay! I am a licensed healthcare provider in the Commonwealth of Virginia. If the bank or the military investigates this as wire fraud or financial exploitation of an elder care account, my business is destroyed! We are liquidating that house immediately."
Chris took Chloe’s hand and looked at Mallory. "Let's go."
Mallory pulled back from Rachel, wiping her eyes. She looked at her father one last time—not with anger, but with a cold, devastating pity.
May you like
"Merry Christmas, Dad," Mallory said softly.
They walked out of the dining room. A moment later, the front door clicked shut, followed by the sound of Chris’s SUV engine starting up in the driveway and fading away down the quiet, suburban street.
