She turned to the room.
“Tell her.
Tell her how selfish she is being.
We drove for hours.
We brought food.
We came to celebrate.”
An uncle cleared his throat.
“We were told Lucas invited us to his new home.”
“He did,” Beatrice said.
The uncle looked at Lucas.
“You said you bought it.”
Lucas’s expression hardened.
“I said it was ours.
That is basically the same thing.”
“No,” I said.
“It is not.”
Mara tapped the tablet.
“There is more.”
Lucas moved toward her again, but the security officer shifted his weight, and Lucas stopped.
The next recording began.
It showed my front hallway earlier that afternoon.
Beatrice stood beneath the camera while Lucas handed her the spare key I had trusted him with.
“Make copies before she gets home,” he said in the video.
“She is particular about people being here, so do not ask her first.
She will calm down once everyone is settled.”
A few relatives turned toward him.
The video continued.
Beatrice asked which bedroom she should use.
Lucas answered, “Take the one facing the garden.
After the wedding, we can move Felicity’s office into the smaller room.”
“And the downstairs room?”
“Uncle Tomas can have it on weekends.
There is no reason all this space should go to waste.”
Then came the sentence that had first frozen the room.
“Once Felicity signs after the wedding, this will all be mine anyway.”
But Mara did not stop the video there.
Lucas’s cousin appeared in the hallway and asked what would happen if I refused to sign.
Lucas laughed.
“She won’t.
She hates conflict.
If my mother pushes hard enough, Felicity always gives in.”
Something inside me went very still.
I had spent eighteen months believing Lucas appreciated my calm nature.
I thought he loved that I listened before speaking and tried to solve disagreements without cruelty.
He had mistaken my kindness for surrender.
The recording ended.
No one defended him.
Beatrice was the first to recover.
“So he wanted his future wife to act like part of a family.
That is not a crime.”
Mara folded her hands.
“No one has accused him of a crime.
At this moment, Felicity is asking everyone who entered without her permission to leave.”
“We are not leaving,” Beatrice said.
The officer nearest the door spoke evenly.
