"You don't understand!" she cried, her voice cracking. "If they find it, they'll take my house! The government will seize everything! I have nothing else left. Richard left me with nothing but this house and his mess!"
The twist of the knife was that Sylvia wasn't the mastermind. The true villain had been dead for ten years. Richard Brandt had illegally buried dozens of highly toxic chemical drums right on the property line to save his failing company, intentionally positioning them slightly onto the neighboring lot—the lot Mason now owned. When Mason's bank ordered the survey and mentioned digging, Sylvia knew the barrels would be discovered. She had spent the last five months systematically terrorizing Mason, hoping the stress, the vandalism, and the fake city complaints would force him to sell the house cheap and move away before the deep soil was ever tested.