I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.
“Who are you?”
“Daniel suspected she might move in next door before he passed. He was afraid that once he was gone, the resentment she’d nursed his whole life would land on you and the boy. He funded an investigator through the trust for exactly that reason. I’ve kept a man on her for the better part of a year.”
“An investigator?”
Mr. Hensley nodded.
“He was parked down the block the afternoon of the incident, as he has been most weeks. His dashcam caught her crossing the centerline, mounting the curb, and driving straight onto your lawn. That met the threshold Daniel set. His instructions were clear: watch, document, never interfere.”
“Daniel suspected she might move in.”
Mr. Hensley paused.
“I served the signed determination the same day. With it, I delivered a sealed letter Daniel wrote before he died, to be opened only if the clause ever triggered. Carol read it alone. I don’t know what was in it, but whatever he said to her did more than the paperwork did. I gave her 24 hours to make her arrangements.”
