Chapter 5 - The Tablet Beneath the Mattress
Evan’s reply appeared while Maya was in the shower.
Call me. Any hour. I believe you.
Maya read it twice.
No one had said those last three words to her in months.
I believe you.
She began typing about the false medical company.
The missing braces.
The trust payments.
Then the bedroom door opened.
Victor stood there holding a basket of laundry.
His eyes moved to the tablet.
“What are you doing?”
“Reading.”
“That tablet doesn’t work.”
“It does now.”
He crossed the room.
Maya slid it beneath the blanket.
Victor reached for it.
She held on.
For several seconds, they pulled against each other.
Then he released the device so suddenly that Maya fell backward.
He laughed.
“Look at you. Fighting over a broken toy.”
“It’s mine.”
“Everything in this house is paid for by me.”
“My father paid for this house.”
Victor’s expression changed.
He picked up the tablet.
“You have no idea what your father left behind.”
He carried it downstairs and smashed it in the garage.
Linda heard the impact.
She did nothing.
That evening, Victor announced that the court had approved a temporary financial conservatorship.
He claimed Maya had demonstrated poor judgment and needed assistance managing her settlement.
Maya demanded to see the papers.
Victor showed her a document bearing her signature.
It stated that she voluntarily requested his help.
“I never signed this.”
“You signed it after surgery.”
“I was medicated.”
“You were fully informed.”
Linda stood beside him.
“You were overwhelmed, sweetheart.”
Maya looked at the signature.
It resembled hers, but the final letter tilted the wrong way.
Victor had copied it from an old birthday card.
The conservatorship gave him authority over her trust distributions, insurance settlement, and medical purchases.
It also allowed him to determine where she lived.
Maya could not move out without his approval.
She called the court clerk using the kitchen phone.
The clerk found no active conservatorship case.
The document was fake.
When Victor realized whom she was calling, he ripped the cord from the wall.
Then he smiled.
May you like
“Who do you think they’ll believe? You—or the man who takes care of you?”
👉 Victor had been using a fake court order for months, but the real reason he needed Maya dependent was hidden inside the title to the house.
