Chapter 5 - THE FIRST THING I DIDN’T TAKE OVERI wanted to fix everything.
That instinct was immediate.
Remove Victoria and Julian.
Freeze accounts.
Call commanders.
Call police.
Call lawyers.
Put Maya in the safest place I could find.
Then I realized I was standing on dangerous ground.
For months, people had controlled Maya “for her own good.”
I could not become another one.
So I asked:
“What do you want today?”
Maya looked surprised.
“Today?”
“Yes.”
She thought for nearly a minute.
“I don’t want to sleep in that house.”
“Okay.”
“I want my medical files.”
“Okay.”
“I want my laptop.”
“Okay.”
“And I don’t want your mother knowing where I’m staying.”
“Okay.”
No argument.
No “but she’s my mother.”
No lecture.
Maya chose a furnished apartment near Alexandria that her friend Chloe helped arrange.
I booked a hotel nearby.
Not with her.
She asked for space.
That hurt.
I took it.
The house presented a separate issue.
Maya and I owned it jointly.
Victoria and Julian did not.
They were guests.
Through our attorney, we sent written notice terminating their permission to stay or enter.
Victoria exploded.
She claimed I was abandoning my mother after she “kept the household functioning” while I served overseas.
Julian said I owed him a chance to explain.
I gave him one answer.
“Through counsel.”
Their personal belongings were collected under an arranged time while Maya and I were elsewhere.
The locks and codes were changed after they left.
Nothing cinematic.
No throwing suitcases into rain.
No surprise ownership trick.
Just the end of access they should never have abused.
Then I examined our finances.
Maya had not been reckless.
Our joint account was almost exactly where I expected.
Her spending was ordinary.
Prenatal care.
Groceries.
Nursery.
Utilities.
Victoria’s story collapsed within twenty minutes of opening the statements.
There was one real financial irregularity.
Transfers from my separate deployment account.
$4,000.
Then $7,500.
Then $12,000.
All to Williams Contracting Supply.
I had approved none of them.
Victoria’s limited power of attorney might explain how she initiated some company-related transfers depending on the exact account authority.
It did not mean she had permission.
Michael began sorting that out.
The total was $63,500.
Not half a million.
Enough to show escalation.
When that money failed to solve Julian’s problem, they came after the house.
Maya looked at the statements.
“I told her you’d never approve this.”
“What did she say?”
Maya’s mouth tightened.
“She said by the time you came home, you’d be thanking her for saving your brother.”
That was when I understood my mother did not view our home as Maya’s and mine.
May you like
She viewed everything connected to me as part of a family pool.
And in her hierarchy, Maya’s consent ranked below Julian’s emergency.
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