The video on Hazel’s phone was a voice recording from years earlier. In it, Diane’s voice said, clear and cold, “Once the kids are gone, you will sign the house over to me, Warren, and we sell it.” Warren’s voice answered, “And he never suspects a thing.” Hazel had found it on an old tablet Diane left behind, hidden inside a folder named “Dad’s house.” The whole backyard went silent as the recording played.

Diane lunged for the phone, but my eldest son, standing nearby, gently stepped between them. “Mom, it is over,” he said quietly. Warren backed toward the door, pale, while my sisters stared in disbelief. Then Hazel lifted her chin and said, “I kept it for ten years, waiting for the day you came back and said you missed us.”

I know you’re curious to see how this story ends, and there’s still so much to discover!