“Activate the emergency structural default,” I told the registrar’s private clerk. “Now.”

Two hours later, I pulled into our driveway in the back of an executive black car. Marcus’s SUV was parked crookedly on the lawn. The estate was pitch-black. Standing on the porch under a torrential downpour was Marcus, soaked to the bone, slamming his shoulder violently against the reinforced cedar front door. Evelyn was shivering inside the idling SUV, screaming into her phone.

“Elena!” Marcus roared, spinning around as my headlights washed over him. “Have you lost your mind?! Why are the electronic biometric deadbolts frozen?! The garage code is rejected, and the master electrical breaker shut down from the inside!”

I stepped out under an umbrella, completely dry. “You left me on an unlit mountain road, Marcus.”

“Because you were disrespectful to my mother!” he yelled, lunging toward my handbag to snatch the master key fob. “Give me the manual bypass key. Now! It’s freezing out here!”

I didn’t reach into my purse. Instead, I slowly pulled up a digital document on my screen, holding it right before his eyes. “Read section 4B, Marcus,” I said calmly.

He squinted at the seal of the County Deeds Registry, his jaw slackening as his eyes scanned the single highlighted clause.

His skin went gray. “Wait… what did you do to the equity line?”