Chapter 3

Now that I was locked outside, I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes dry.

It finally occurred to me that I could not possibly emerge victorious by confronting Emilia head-on.

She was the only one who knew sign language. As long as that remained the case, I could never get a word in and would always be framed as the villain.

Based on how frantically she tore up the letter and how persistent she was in stopping me from writing to Leroy, I could tell she must have been concocting lies to manipulate him. She was afraid of getting exposed.

Instead of heading home, I took a taxi back to the mediation center.

I was in such a rush yesterday that I ended up leaving my umbrella behind on a chair.

The lobby was empty when I arrived. The elderly mediator from yesterday was nowhere to be seen. The only person I could find was a younger staff member who was organizing documents.

When I went inside to collect the umbrella, she recognized me and shook her head disapprovingly. “It’s you! You were so heartless yesterday! Your sister-in-law told me how you tried to take your brother's apartment from him and refused to give him a single cent toward the fine. You were the reason he had no choice but to mortgage the house to his mother-in-law.”

I was dumbstruck by the accusation.

When have I ever said anything about wanting to take his house?

I was starting to piece together the series of lies Emilia was concocting.

Using sign language, she must have been telling Leroy that I was trying to take the house and abandon him. Meanwhile, she had also been convincing everyone else of the same version of her story.

By doing so, she managed to draw up a perfect string of lies to convince Leroy to willingly hand over the house to her mother.

“Thank you for telling me this.”

I clenched my fist at the thought of Emilia’s cunning scheme.

Then, I noticed the monitor in the corner of the room contained the surveillance footage from yesterday.

There was always a staff member present inside the room to prevent foul play. Despite that, I managed to catch the clerk off guard and sneak a picture of the surveillance camera's serial number when she was pouring herself a glass of water.

Around three o’clock the same day, I had just gotten home when I received a text message from the property management.

[Dear resident, a request to update the biometric access for Unit 604 in Block 12 is currently processing. The primary account registered to Leah Graham will be…]

Since I paid the down payment for the house, I had authorized access to the security system.

When I called the property management to enquire, the customer service representative informed me, “Miss Leah, it was Miss Emilia who came with Mr. Leroy, who had all the necessary credentials to process the documents. Everything was verified in the system.”

They had begun the process of transferring ownership of the house.

My first thought was to rush to wherever Emilia was and get a hold of her, but I wisely bit my lip and held back. Doing something rash would not help since I did not know sign language.

Then, I went through my phone and found a video from six months ago. It was footage of us eating at a restaurant.

At the time, I was telling Leroy about a potential new job and had Emilia translate for me. When she was done, Leroy got furious and slammed his fist on the table.

I sent the video to a former colleague of mine, Rina Houghton.

Since her parents happened to be both deaf and mute, she was well-versed in sign language.

“Rina, can you help me figure out what this girl is saying here?”

I had to find out what Emilia was saying.

On Thursday morning, I received a call from Emilia.

“Hey Leah, let’s meet at two tomorrow in the meeting room at the center. I want to hand over Leroy's health insurance documents to you.”

She spoke in an uncharacteristically demure tone.

I chuckled inwardly to myself.

As if she would do something like that. This was clearly a trap she set up because she knew I was desperate to vindicate myself. Her real goal was to get me to revoke my legal rights in the handover process.

When I stepped into the meeting room the next day, I found Emilia, Leroy, and the real estate agent waiting at the table for me.

Set at the center of the table was a power of attorney document authorizing the sale of the property. Right next to it was a debt disclaimer document.

By signing the document, I would be waiving all rights to claim any compensation from the sale of the house, as well as any right to challenge future transactions.

The moment Emilia saw me, she put up a show of being magnanimous and welcoming.

“Leah, you came just in time. The factory management issued an ultimatum and demanded a large amount of repayment. Leroy says he’s willing to man up and bear the responsibility to sell the house to pay off the debt.

“You’re the only thing stopping him now. All the documents are ready. Just sign here to waive your legal obligation toward joint payment of his debt and let him sell the house.”

I stepped forward and threw my bank statements and debit card onto the table with a loud thud. The tremendous sound it produced shocked the room into silence.