The Morning Was Too Quiet At My Beach House — Just Waves, Wind, And Coffee. Then My Security Guard Called: “Rose… Your Daughter-In-Law Is In The Lobby With Movers. She Says She Owns Your Apartment.” I Stayed Silent And Opened The Security Cameras. Minutes Later I Watched Her Break My Lock, Walk Into My Bedroom, And Whisper On The Phone: “The Sedative In Her Tea Didn’t Work.” Then The Sirens Started… And She Finally Realized I Had Been Watching Her The Entire Time.

“Miles, listen to me, the petition for guardianship is ready and once these assets are in motion, she will look too erratic to defend herself in court,” Simone continued.

I realized then that she was talking to a man named Jasper, a lawyer I would later learn was a disreputable figure who specialized in predatory guardianship cases for the wealthy.

Then the sound of sirens began to echo through the camera audio, and I watched Simone go rigid and run to the window with a movement that lacked all of her usual grace.

She told the movers to leave everything and go, but the elevator doors opened to reveal four uniformed police officers stepping into the corridor with Mateo right behind them.

“Rebecca Tiarra? We have a report of an unauthorized entry and a broken lock,” the officer said as he stepped into the doorway of my home.

Simone tried to claim it was a misunderstanding and that she had legal authority, but the officer asked for a court order that she simply did not have in her leather folder.

I watched as she was instructed to step into the hallway and put the folder down, and her face hardened as she realized her carefully constructed world was collapsing.