Chapter 7 - The Warning Before I Fell
His name was Eric Molina.
He owned a small residential carpentry company in Gahanna.
Daniel met him first.
I joined later with my attorney because my injury was now tied to what Eric remembered.
He pulled the old estimate from his scheduling software.
Dad had called him nearly two months before my fall.
The estimate covered three things.
Replace the rear stairs.
Repair the railing.
Replace rotted boards on the small landing.
Total: $8,360.
Close enough to explain Dad’s $8,400 check.
“Did you speak to my father?” I asked.
“Initially.”
“And Rachel?”
“She took over scheduling.”
Eric opened an email.
He had sent it to Rachel because she told him she was handling the project.
One sentence was bolded.
Until replacement, I strongly recommend no one use the rear stairs. The lower stringer is badly deteriorated and could fail under weight.
My mouth went dry.
“Did Rachel respond?”
“Yes.”
He showed us.
Understood. I’ll keep everyone off them until we schedule.
There was no scheduled repair.
Four days later, Rachel cancelled.
She said the family was “going another direction.”
Dad told Daniel he knew nothing about the cancellation.
He believed the repair was pending.
I thought back to the afternoon of my fall.
I had stopped by Dad’s house with groceries.
The back door was unlocked.
I had used those steps because Dad always kept the side gate open.
Nobody had warned me.
Rachel later told the family I had ignored Dad’s instructions not to use them.
Dad repeated that version so often I had almost begun wondering whether I had forgotten a warning.
There had been a warning.
Just not to me.
It had been sent to Rachel.
My attorney told me not to leap beyond the evidence.
“We know she received the safety warning. We know the repair money went to her company. We know the work was cancelled. We do not yet know exactly why.”
That distinction mattered.
So we kept looking.
RHC Creative’s bank records were not ours to access simply because we wanted them.
But Dad could authorize review of payments originating from his account.
Rachel could also produce records voluntarily.
She refused.
Daniel asked why.
She said her business finances had nothing to do with my fall.
He stared at her for a long time.
Then he said, “They do if Dad paid you to fix the stairs.”
Rachel walked out of the room.
That night she sent Daniel a text.
Emma is turning you against your own family.
Daniel showed it to me.
I almost replied.
I didn’t.
He wrote back himself.
Emma didn’t move Dad’s money.
Rachel did not answer.
The next morning, she retained her own attorney.
And for the first time since the birthday party, she stopped telling relatives I wanted Dad’s house.
May you like
She began saying something new.
That Dad had authorized everything.
