“When I reminded Gregory this wasn’t his house, he grabbed my wife by the wrist and told me to stop pretending to be a man unless I was prepared to be treated like one.”
Gregory exploded.
“That’s a complete lie! I never said anything like that!” he shouted.
Officer Miller calmly turned toward him.
“Mr. Dalton, lower your voice immediately,” she ordered.
Gregory pointed angrily at me.
“This is all because of him! He throws money around just to make everyone else feel inferior,” he yelled. “He only bought this mansion so he could control the whole family!”
I stepped closer, keeping my tone quiet but unmistakably threatening.
“No,” I said. “I bought this home so they could spend their mornings looking at the ocean after fifty years of waking before sunrise simply to survive.”
Gregory laughed, though the sound came out thin and trembling with fear.
“You honestly think a piece of paper makes you some kind of god?” he sneered.
“No,” I answered. “It makes me the lawful owner of this property, and it makes them the only people legally authorized to live here besides invited guests. Your invitation ended the instant you threatened them.”
The second officer, a younger deputy named Henderson, returned inside after speaking with the neighbors.
Mrs. Evans from the house next door stepped onto the porch wearing a thick cardigan over her gardening clothes, her expression sharp enough to slice through steel.
Mrs. Evans had witnessed more than enough of their behavior.
Standing near the open front door, I heard her tell the officer, “That tall man has been shouting at them for several days, and yesterday the elderly gentleman was locked outside on the porch for almost twenty minutes. I nearly called the police then.”
Fiona buried her face in both hands.
Gregory lowered his eyes toward the floor in defeat.
Several minutes later, Officer Henderson came back inside and quietly spoke with Officer Miller.
Then Officer Miller faced Gregory and Fiona with a firm expression.
“Mr. Dalton, Mrs. Dalton, you need to collect your essential belongings and leave this property today,” she said. “Mr. Sinclair has made it clear that you are no longer welcome here.”
Gregory’s face hardened with anger.
“You’re really throwing out a family with two children?” he demanded.
Officer Miller never even blinked.
“You are being instructed to leave a property where you no longer have permission to stay after serious accusations involving thre:ats and intimidation,” she answered.
Fiona lowered her voice into a resentful whisper.
“Lucas, you can’t honestly be doing this to us,” she said.
I stared at her silently for a long moment.
She was my older sister, the same girl who had once taught me how to ride a bicycle before laughing when I inevitably cr@shed.
She was the woman who mailed flowers to our mother every Mother’s Day, only to borrow money from her a couple of weeks afterward.