I realized right then that the lock had been replaced with a brand new one to keep me out. “What did you do?” I asked as I turned to face her again with my hands shaking.
Melody stepped closer to me so she could enjoy the moment of my realization and pain. “I didn’t do anything, but Garrett changed the locks this morning to ensure our privacy,” she explained.
“You can’t do that because my name is on the mortgage,” I argued while trying to stay calm. “His name was on it too when you signed, but things are different now,” she replied with a venomous calm.
She pulled a beige folder out of her bag and showed me some notarized documents with official stamps. “Garrett put the house into a family trust and I am the official beneficiary along with the baby,” she bragled.
I stood there frozen because I couldn’t believe they had tried to steal the property from under me. “You are lying to me,” I whispered while looking at the signatures on the papers.
“I wish I were, but you were basically just an unwitting sponsor for our new life together,” she mocked. I went back to my car with my legs trembling and I found that I didn’t even want to cry this time.
I stared at the house and felt a cold sensation of pure determination growing inside my chest. I took out my phone and called Barnaby, who was a real estate lawyer I had contacted a week ago.
I had noticed strange bank transfers and withdrawals from Garrett’s accounts recently and grew suspicious. “Tell me that they have already moved into the house,” Barnaby said as soon as he answered the call.
“They are inside right now and they changed the locks,” I told him while watching Melody through the windshield. Barnaby let out a short laugh and told me that this was actually the perfect scenario for us.
“It is perfect because now there is no doubt that they will both face the full consequences of their actions,” he explained. “I need you to tell me exactly what is going to happen next,” I pleaded.
“Those trust papers are completely worthless if they don’t match the registered deed at the county office,” he said firmly. I remembered the past few weeks of looking through emails and discovering Garrett’s plan to leave me.
I had made the silent decision to let him sign the closing papers without reading every single page of the final contract. “So who actually owns the house?” I asked as I held my breath.
“The house is solely in your name, Sienna, because the final payment came from your grandmother’s inheritance,” Barnaby confirmed. He told me he had made sure everything was protected during the legal process to keep the property as my exclusive patrimony.
I looked at the house and saw Melody walking through the living room like she was a crowned queen. Garrett arrived and kissed her at the door because he was absolutely convinced that he had won.
“What do we do now?” I asked my lawyer while a small smile began to form on my lips. “Let them unpack and act like they own the place until Tuesday morning,” Barnaby instructed.
He said we would show up with the police and a locksmith to handle the situation legally. On Tuesday morning I arrived at the house with Barnaby and two police officers in patrol cars.
The sky was gray and heavy as the locksmith began to drill directly into the new front door lock. The loud noise shattered the quiet morning and Garrett appeared at the door looking disheveled and confused.
“What is going on here?” he shouted while claiming that I was trespassing on private property. The police officer told him that according to public records, I was the sole owner of the entire property.
Melody came running down the stairs screaming that they had legal documents for a family trust. Barnaby opened his briefcase and handed a copy of the registered deed to the officer for verification.
“The property was acquired exclusively by Sienna and Garrett signed a waiver of rights during the closing,” Barnaby explained. Melody looked at the paper and her entire world seemed to crumble in an instant as she read the words.
“What does this mean?” she asked with a trembling voice as she looked at Garrett for answers. “It means the house isn’t yours and it never belonged to Garrett either,” Barnaby replied.
Garrett tried to blame a mistake at the bank but I stepped forward to stop his lies. “The mistake was thinking you could use my money to build a life with my sister,” I told him.
I threw the bank statements at his feet to show I knew about the money he had stolen from our joint account. “You tricked me!” Melody screamed at Garrett while she started to cry in front of the officers.
“You were the one who pressured me to get this house right away!” Garrett yelled back at her. The officers told them they had thirty minutes to pack their basic belongings and leave the premises.
Melody tried to use her pregnancy as an excuse to stay but the police stayed firm on the eviction. The next half hour was a pathetic display of them dragging trash bags and suitcases to their car.
Garrett tried to talk to me one last time to see if we could somehow fix the situation. “No, the only thing I am fixing is my house after you two made a mess of it,” I told him.
I watched them drive away with a car full of lies and bitter resentment toward each other. I walked into my house and took a deep breath of the air that finally felt clean again.
I realized that while they took my wedding plans, they could never take away my dignity or my strength.
THE END.
