Chapter 6 - What Nia Hadn't Said
Marcus did not sleep that night.
The family was temporarily moved from the crowded school gym to Denise's three-bedroom house inland.
Jayden and Ava slept together in the guest room.
Tiana took the couch.
Marcus sat at the kitchen table with copies of Elijah's documents arranged around him like evidence in a trial.
At two in the morning, Nia entered.
“You need rest.”
“So does everybody.”
“That wasn't what I said.”
Marcus kept reading.
Nia sat opposite him.
“There is something I need to tell you.”
He looked up slowly.
After everything else, those words felt dangerous.
“What?”
“Shoreline Meridian contacted me.”
Marcus went still.
“When?”
“Five months ago.”
He placed the ledger down.
“Why?”
“They knew you weren't answering their calls.”
“So they called my wife.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
Nia's voice sharpened.
“When you could hear the words ‘sell the property’ without acting like somebody had insulted your dead father.”
Marcus stood.
“So you met them.”
She did not deny it.
Once.
At a coffee shop.
A representative named Allison Grant had offered Nia information about what the family could receive if Marcus reconsidered selling.
“How much?”
“Three point six million.”
Marcus laughed without humor.
“And that didn't seem suspicious after they offered me one point eight?”
“It seemed like enough money to pay every debt we had, fund college for both children and live somewhere that didn't have evacuation maps posted at the grocery store.”
“That land wasn't yours to negotiate.”
“Our children's lives are mine to worry about.”
The room changed.
This was not simply about secrecy.
It was about the marriage.
Nia stood too.
“For three years, Marcus, every time I asked whether staying there made sense, you said, ‘Dad wanted us there.’”
“He did.”
“Your father is not raising Jayden and Ava.”
“That shelter saved them.”
“Yes.”
Nia's voice broke.
“And the fact that we needed it almost killed me.”
Marcus stared at her.
The truth was cruel because both could be right.
She continued.
“I didn't sign anything. I didn't promise anything. I told Allison I wouldn't discuss a sale without you.”
“Then why hide it?”
“Because I was tempted.”
Marcus looked away.
That answer hurt because it was honest.
Nia reached into her bag.
“She gave me this.”
A business card.
On the back, Allison had written a parcel number.
Marcus recognized it.
The eastern ridge.
“She said this section was the real reason Shoreline Meridian wanted the property.”
“The aquifer.”
“I didn't know that then.”
“Did she mention Leon?”
Nia nodded reluctantly.
“She said your uncle was helping ‘resolve family title complications.’”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Another person had known.
Another person had remained silent.
Nia reached across the table.
“I thought it was a real estate dispute. I did not know your signature had been forged.”
Marcus pulled his hand away.
She let him.
“You've spent two days asking how Tiana could keep a secret because she was ashamed,” Nia said. “I kept one because I was afraid you'd hear my doubt as betrayal.”
“Was it?”
“My doubt?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She paused.
“My silence might have been.”
Marcus looked at his wife.
That answer was worse and better than an excuse.
From the hallway came a small voice.
“Mom?”
Ava stood barefoot in the doorway.
Nia immediately softened.
“Hey, baby.”
“I had the water dream.”
Marcus crossed the room.
Ava raised both arms, and he lifted her.
“Did the water get inside?” she asked.
“No.”
“Because you locked the door?”
“Yes.”
She touched his beard.
“Will our house be there tomorrow?”
Marcus couldn't lie.
“I don't know.”
Ava nodded against his shoulder.
Children sometimes accepted uncertainty more gracefully than adults.
After Nia carried her back to bed, Marcus returned to the kitchen.
His phone showed an email from the county property system.
He had requested all recorded filings involving the Carter parcel.
One attachment caught his attention.
SUBSURFACE ACCESS OPTION — Shoreline Meridian Development.
Dated four months earlier.
It gave Shoreline Meridian the right to purchase underground water access for $6.8 million if county authorization was obtained.
Marcus read the signature page.
Again, his name appeared.
Again, it was forged.
But this time there was another signature.
Nia Carter.
Marcus stared at it.
She had just told him she signed nothing.
He called her back into the room.
She saw the document.
Her face emptied.
“I didn't sign that.”
Marcus said nothing.
“Marcus, look at me.”
He did.
“That isn't my signature.”
It looked almost perfect.
Almost.
Nia always used her middle initial on legal documents.
This signature omitted it.
Marcus slowly sat down.
Someone had not forged only him.
They had forged his wife too.
Nia whispered, “They weren't preparing to ask us anymore.”
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Marcus understood.
“They were preparing to make it look like we'd already said yes.”
