“A copy of the check.”
“Why do I need it?”
“You don't.”
Robert looked embarrassed.
“I just wanted you to see it.”
Evan understood.
This was not about the money.
It was proof that Robert had not been foolish for believing something felt wrong.
He had simply lacked leverage.
“You going to do anything fun with it?”
Robert smiled.
“I’m buying a new refrigerator.”
Evan laughed.
“That’s your revenge?”
“My old one makes a noise like a helicopter.”
“Then destroy that bastard.”
Robert laughed too.
For the first time since the incident began, Oak Briar felt less like a collection of plaintiffs and more like a neighborhood again.
Chapter: Marissa’s Deposition
Evan saw Marissa next during a deposition.
By then, six months had passed.
She looked different without the HOA presidency behind her.
Not physically.
She still dressed carefully.
Still sat straight.
Still corrected people when they misstated dates.
But the invisible authority that once seemed to enter rooms ahead of her was gone.
Sarah asked the questions.
Marissa’s attorney objected frequently.
Most objections changed nothing.
“Did you authorize Vale Civic Services to discharge water into Mr. Brooks’s pool?”
“I authorized emergency drainage work.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Marissa paused.
“Yes.”
“Did the board vote to authorize that?”
“No.”
“Did the management company authorize it?”
“No.”
“Did the city?”
“No.”
“Did Mr. Brooks?”
“No.”
Sarah placed a printed email in front of her.
“Did you write to your son that Mr. Brooks wanted paperwork and you intended to give him ‘a condition nobody could argue with’?”
Marissa read it.
“Yes.”
“What did condition mean?”
“A visible drainage problem.”
“How did putting contaminated water into his pool create evidence of a drainage problem?”
Marissa’s jaw tightened.
“That was not my intention.”
Sarah waited.
The silence became uncomfortable.
Then she asked:
“What was your intention?”
Marissa looked toward Evan for the first time.
“To make him stop.”
Evan said nothing.
“Stop what?” Sarah asked.
“Challenging everything.”
“Everything?”
“The drainage project.”
“The vendors.”
“The assessment.”
“Board procedures.”
Sarah leaned forward.
“Was Mr. Brooks prohibited from asking those questions?”
“No.”
“Was he wrong that your son owned ClearCurrent?”
“No.”
“Was he wrong that your relative owned Vale Civic Services?”
“No.”
“Was he wrong that those relationships had not been listed in the conflict-of-interest register?”
Marissa said nothing.
Her attorney whispered to her.
Finally:
“No.”
That was the moment Evan understood the whole thing.