Chapter 4 - The House of Cards Collapses
The next forty-eight hours were a whirlwind of legal firestorms.
Because the breach involved a Marshal’s residence and sensitive equipment, the case didn't go to the local D.C. police.
It went straight to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
My phone became a battlefield.
My father called me forty-two times in a single day.
When I finally answered, he didn't ask how I was. He didn't ask if I was safe in London.
"You have to drop the charges, Marissa!" he bellowed. "Your sister is in a federal holding cell! The kids are with Child Protective Services! Do you have any idea what this is doing to our reputation?"
"I didn't press the charges, Dad," I said, my voice cold. "The United States Government did. I don't own the house. I don't own the 'lockbox.' I don't own the law."
"You sold that house out from under us!" he screamed. "That was supposed to be our retirement plan! We had a deal!"
"We never had a deal," I countered. "You had a fantasy where I worked myself to death so you could live in a penthouse you didn't earn. It’s over."
I hung up and blocked his number. Then I blocked my mother.
But the law wasn't finished with them.
During the discovery phase, federal investigators pulled Paige’s text records.
They found months of messages between her and my parents, planning the "takeover" of my home.
They found emails where my mother had researched how to create a "squatter’s rights" claim in Virginia to prevent me from evicting them.
They even found evidence that my mother had paid a locksmith to try and bypass the building’s main security weeks before, which explained how they had eventually gotten the emergency code.
It wasn't just a sister breaking in. It was a conspiracy to commit grand larceny.
Because they had targeted a federal officer’s home, the "Intent to Defraud the United States" statute was brought into play.
Reid called me a week later.
"They're offering Paige a plea deal," he informed me. "Five years in federal prison, ten years probation. If she testifies against your parents for their role in planning the break-in, they might lower it to three."
"Will she do it?" I asked.
"She already has," Reid said. "She turned on your mother within ten minutes of her lawyer arriving. She’s blaming the whole thing on them."
I leaned back in my chair, looking out at the London skyline.
The Keane family was doing what they did best: devouring each other to survive.
They had spent years trying to eat me alive, but I had finally become too bitter a meal to swallow.
"And the kids?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"They're staying with a maternal aunt on your father's side who seems... actually normal," Reid said. "The court has issued a temporary restraining order against your parents and Paige."
"Thank you, Reid," I said. "For everything."
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"I just protected my property, Marissa," he said, though there was a hint of something warmer in his tone. "You’re the one who finally protected yourself."
***
