Chapter 5 - PACK YOUR BAGS
Demi returned to the Rochester house after the access order.
She wore her maroon blouse and silver watch. Paige accompanied her, along with a process server delivering the court documents.
Glenda stood in the kitchen in her floral silk robe, heavy gold chains resting against her collarbone.
A heavy iron pot sat on the stove.
When Glenda saw the temporary restraint, she lifted the pot and threw it onto the kitchen table.
It struck the wood hard enough to leave a circular mark.
The process server stepped back.
Paige raised her phone and began recording.
Glenda pointed at the photographs in Demi’s hand.
“He found someone better.”
Demi laid the glossy images against the iron pot.
Then she placed the certified property deed on top.
Glenda stared at the green county seal.
“The house deed?”
Demi’s demeanor went still.
“I bought this house.”
“You made a contribution.”
“One hundred forty-five thousand dollars from my grandmother’s home. Philip signed a statement confirming it.”
“This house belongs to my son too.”
“The Rochester house does. The cottage also belongs to both of us—which means you and Philip had no right to forge my name and transfer it into your company.”
“I forged nothing.”
“You delivered the deed and a copy of my license to the notary.”
Glenda’s eyes moved toward Paige’s phone.
Demi opened the court order.
“Pack your bags.”
“You cannot evict me.”
“Not with one sentence. That is why my lawyer served written notice terminating your permission to live here.”
Paige spoke before Glenda could mischaracterize it.
“The notice does not authorize self-help eviction. Ms. Mercer has the right to respond through counsel. The separate stay-away request will be decided at the hearing.”
Demi kept her eyes on Glenda.
“You are no longer living here because everyone assumes I will keep tolerating you.”
Philip arrived twenty minutes later.
He accused Demi of frightening his mother and demanded that Paige stop recording. Paige informed him that the kitchen conversation had been openly recorded with everyone aware.
Philip looked at the deed, photographs, and iron pot.
For once, the objects made silence impossible.
“You’re destroying our investment,” he said.
“You used my forged signature to create it.”
“I was trying to protect the cottage from divorce.”
The admission landed before Philip recognized what he had said.
Paige stepped forward.
“You anticipated divorce when you transferred the property?”
Philip looked toward his mother.
Glenda answered for him.
“Demi had been unhappy for months.”
“Because you were switching off electricity and throwing cookware,” Paige said.
Glenda removed her bracelets and placed them on the table one by one.
“My son’s father left debts when he died. Philip promised I would never lose another home.”
Demi glanced at the lender documents.
“The $173,400 is yours.”
“It is money I am owed.”
“By whom?”
Glenda looked at Philip.
He moved toward the doorway.
Paige blocked neither him nor the exit.
“You should answer your wife,” she said.
Philip left without doing so.
The court hearing occurred three days later. The process server testified about Glenda throwing the pot onto the table. Paige’s recording captured the impact and Glenda’s refusal to deny the earlier bedroom incident.
The judge granted Demi temporary exclusive use of the Rochester house and directed Glenda to vacate within ten days. Philip could retrieve personal property at scheduled times but could not move Glenda back in.
The order did not decide final ownership.
It changed who controlled the space while the case proceeded.
Outside the courthouse, Alyssa Grant waited beside Paige’s car.
She looked exhausted rather than glamorous.
“I was told they had been separated for almost a year,” she said.
Demi stopped.
May you like
Alyssa held out her phone.
“I’m withdrawing from Pineglass House. But before I do, you need to see what Philip asked his mother to do to you.”
