Chapter 6 - The Dinner Party Trap
The soft chiming of the doorbell echoed through Derek’s sprawling, minimalist suburban home exactly forty-eight hours after the explosive confrontation on Sandra’s porch.
Derek stood in the entryway, smoothing down his tailored blazer while his wife, Susan, adjusted the lighting in the formal dining room. Tonight was supposed to be a damage-control dinner—an urgent family summit called by Derek to figure out how his mother had suddenly acquired enough cash to buy brand-new luxury cars for deadbeat relatives while cutting off her own children.
Derek pulled the front door open, expecting to see Ashley and her husband. Instead, standing on the porch was a courier holding a heavy, silver-embossed envelope addressed directly to Derek and Ashley Williams.
"What's this?" Derek muttered, signing the digital pad.
"Signature required, Mr. Williams. Have a good evening," the courier said, turning and walking down the driveway.
Derek closed the door, tore open the thick cardstock, and pulled out a formal invitation. Across the heavy cream paper, embossed in elegant calligraphy, were the words: You are cordially invited to a family dinner celebrating the future of the Williams Estate at the Grand Continental Hotel, Saturday at 7:00 PM.
Susan walked up behind him, peering over his shoulder. "A hotel? Not your mother's house? What is she up to now? Did she win some kind of small community lottery or an insurance payout?"
"I don't know," Derek said, a frown deepening lines across his forehead. "My lawyers checked every local record in the county. There are no public injury settlements, no hidden pensions, nothing. But nobody rents out the private penthouse dining room at the Grand Continental for two hundred dollars."
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His phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text message from Ashley: Did you get the invite too? What on earth is Mom playing at?
Derek stared at the invitation, a sudden, cold knot of greed and suspicion tightening in his chest. "She's playing a game, Susan. And Saturday night, we're going to find out what cards she's holding."
