“Please don’t.”
I ignored him.
“Tonight was supposed to be Mark’s birthday.”
I looked at him.
“But I think everyone deserves to know why I prepared the envelopes sitting beside your plates.”
Claire’s expression changed.
Mark froze.
His mother looked confused.
“What envelopes?” she asked.
I walked around the table.
Then I picked up the first one.
“These.”
I handed it to Mark.
He didn’t open it.
“Open it.”
He looked at me.
“Please.”
Slowly, he opened the envelope.
Inside was a printed document.
His face changed immediately.
“What is this?”
“Read it.”
His eyes moved across the page.
Then he looked at me.
“You did this?”
“Yes.”
Claire stepped forward.
“What is it?”
I looked at her.
“It is the result of a property search.”
Mark’s face went pale.
“You had no right.”
“I had every right.”
I had spent the previous week quietly investigating the house.
Something hadn’t felt right.
