I Pretended To Travel And Discovered A Secret About My Son And Daughter In Law… In Reality, They…
«Now all we have to do is wait,» Moses said. «And observe.» I sat by the window with a knot in my stomach.
My own house. The place where I had been happy for decades, now felt like enemy territory. A place I needed to spy on from afar.
To discover what the people I had loved and protected were doing. The first few hours were normal. Audrey went out to the grocery store around 10 in the morning.
Robert left for work as always. The house was left alone, silent. But when evening fell, around six, I saw something that made me hold my breath.
A silver car parked in front of my house. A young couple got out, maybe in their thirties. They were carrying a large suitcase and two backpacks.
Audrey opened the door before they could ring the doorbell, as if she were expecting them. She greeted them with smiles. They spoke briefly.
The man took out his wallet and handed cash to Audrey. She quickly counted it and invited them in. I felt the floor disappear beneath my feet.
I had just seen my daughter-in-law receive money from strangers and let them into my house as if it were a hotel. Moses was standing next to me, watching the same scene, his face tense. «Did you see that?» I asked him with a trembling voice, needing confirmation that my eyes weren’t deceiving me.
«I saw it, Eleanor. I saw everything,» he replied grimly. «These aren’t just suspicions anymore.»
«It’s real. They are using your house to rent rooms without you knowing.» Renting rooms.
In my house. The house I built with my late husband with years of work and sacrifice. The house where I raised my son.
The house full of sacred memories. And they were turning it into a clandestine business behind my back. The rage I felt at that moment was like liquid fire running through my veins.
I wanted to cross the street, knock on the door, and confront them in front of those strangers. But Moses put his hand on my shoulder firmly. «Wait, Eleanor.»
«If you go now, we’ll only know this. But if we wait, if we watch more, we will discover the whole truth. The complete magnitude of what they are doing.»
He was right. I took a deep breath, trying to calm the hurricane raging inside my chest. I sat down again by the window, my hands clenched in my lap.
Over the next hour, I saw lights turning on in different rooms of my house. The living room. The kitchen.
And then… Then I saw light coming from that room. My old master bedroom.
The one that supposedly had a moisture problem. The one they kept locked up. Now I understood why.
There was no moisture. There were guests. Strange people sleeping in the space where my husband and I had shared 35 years of marriage.
Unknown people using the bed where he died in my arms. Unknown people walking on the floor where I had cried over his death for months. Tears began to roll down my cheeks without permission.
They weren’t tears of sadness. They were tears of fury. Of betrayal.
Of a pain so deep that I felt like I would break in two. «How could they?» I whispered to myself. «How could my own son do this to me?»
Moses didn’t say anything. He just sat beside me in silence, respecting my pain. Outside, the night continued to fall, and my house, my home, was transforming into something unrecognizable before my eyes.
Around nine o’clock that night, Robert arrived from work. I saw him park his car, enter the house with his briefcase as if it were a normal day. As if he wasn’t participating in a monumental betrayal against his own mother.
Twenty minutes later, another couple arrived, younger this time, maybe 25 years old. Audrey received them with the same routine. Cash, smiles, doors opening.
And they entered carrying their suitcases as if they were arriving at any roadside motel. I counted mentally. There were already two couples inside my house.
Four strangers occupying my spaces, breathing my air, touching my things. «How long do you think they’ve been doing this?» I asked Moses. He thought for a moment before answering.
«From what I’ve observed, I would say at least three months, maybe four. It started little by little. At first, it was one person every week, then two.»
«Now I see movement almost every day.» Three or four months. All this time, while I lived under the same roof, they were operating this secret business.
Every time I went to sleep early, every time I went out to run errands, every time I visited a friend, they took advantage to receive more people, to make more money with my property. I calculated mentally. If each couple paid, say, $50 per night, and they had two or three couples every night, they were making between $100 and $150 daily.
In one month, that added up to over $3,000. In four months, over $12,000. $12,000 earned illegally using my house, my electricity, my water, my gas, without paying me a single cent, without even having the decency to ask me if they could do it.
They stole from me. My own son and daughter-in-law were stealing from me in the most vile and calculated way. The night deepened.
Around 11, the lights in my house began to turn off one by one, first the living room, then the kitchen. The bedrooms remained lit for a little longer, and then they too went dark. Everything fell silent.
I remained sitting by the window, unable to move, unable to fully process the dimension of what I had discovered. Moses brought me a blanket and hot tea. «You should rest, Eleanor.»
«Tomorrow there will be more to see.» But I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t close my eyes, knowing that strangers were sleeping in my house.
I stayed there all night, watching. And my vigil was rewarded. At six in the morning, the door to my house opened.
The young couple who had arrived first came out with their suitcases. A taxi was waiting for them. They left quickly, discreetly, like ghosts disappearing with the light of day.
Half an hour later, the second couple did the same. By seven in the morning, all the guests were gone. Audrey went out to the front yard with a trash bag, left it in the container, and went back inside.
Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened, as if my house hadn’t been violated all night long. Robert left the house at eight, ready to go to work. He wore his gray suit, carried his briefcase, walked with that straight posture I had taught him since he was a child.
He looked like a respectable, hard-working, honest man. But I knew the truth now. I knew that behind that facade of a responsible son hid a man capable of betraying his own mother for money.
A man who could look me in the eye during breakfast after having filled my house with strangers all night. During the day, I watched Audrey moving around the house. I saw her changing sheets, cleaning rooms, preparing everything for the next guests.
She worked efficiently with practice. This wasn’t something new for her. She had an established routine.
Every move was calculated, professional. She was the brains of this operation. I was sure.
Robert may have agreed, maybe he collaborated, but Audrey was the one running everything. I could see it in the way she managed the business, in how she organized every detail. When evening fell on the second day, more guests arrived.
This time it was three people, two men and a woman. They seemed to be friends, traveling together. Audrey received them the same way as the previous ones.
Cash in hand, professional smiles, doors opening. And I kept watching from Moses’ window, mentally documenting every movement, every transaction, every betrayal. Moses had suggested taking pictures, but I didn’t want digital evidence yet.
First, I needed to understand the complete operation. I needed to know if there was something else, something worse, that I hadn’t discovered yet. And then Moses told me something that changed everything.
It was the night of the second day, close to ten, when he approached me with a serious expression. «Eleanor, there’s something else you need to know. Something I’ve been hesitant to tell you or not.»
My heart sped up. «What is it, Moses?» He sat across from me, his elderly eyes full of worry.
«Two weeks ago, I saw Audrey meeting a man at the corner coffee shop. It wasn’t Robert. It was someone older, well-dressed, with a lawyer or doctor’s briefcase.»
«They talked for almost an hour. I was at the next table, and even though I didn’t want to listen, some words reached my ears.» I leaned forward, every muscle in my body tense.
«What words, Moses?» He swallowed before continuing. «I heard something about documents, about mental competency, about medical evaluations, and about nursing homes.»
The world stopped. Those words fell on me like blocks of ice. Mental competency, medical evaluations, nursing homes.
No, they couldn’t be planning that. «Are you sure about what you heard?» I asked in a barely audible voice. Moses nodded slowly.
«Wait until Friday midnight, Eleanor. I’ve noticed that Fridays are special. There’s more movement, more people, more activity.»
«Wait until Friday midnight. You’ll discover everything.» Moses’ words resonated in my head like funeral bells.
Mental competency, medical evaluations, nursing homes. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Not after discovering they were using my house as a clandestine business.
This was bigger, darker, more calculated than I had imagined. They weren’t just stealing from me. They were preparing me for something worse.
Something that would take away not just my house, but my freedom, my dignity, my entire life. I spent the next three days in a state of constant alert. Every morning, I watched the guests leave my house.
Every night, I saw new ones arrive. The flow was constant, almost industrial. Audrey managed everything with military precision.
She had a notebook where she wrote down schedules, names, payments. I saw it once when she left it on the kitchen counter while preparing coffee. Even from a distance, I could see columns of numbers, dates, codes.
This wasn’t an improvised business. It was a well-planned operation, with records, a system, with months of preparation. Robert participated less visibly, but he was a full accomplice.
He was the one who changed the sheets Audrey couldn’t manage to wash. He bought the extra supplies they needed, soaps, toilet paper, towels. He kept the lawn impeccable to make a good impression on the guests.
And every night, when he thought no one saw him, he counted the cash with Audrey at the dining room table. I watched them through the window, illuminated by the hanging lamp my husband had installed 20 years ago. Their hands passed over $20, $50, $100 bills.
They made piles. They put them in envelopes. They smiled with that greedy smile that turned my stomach.
On Thursday night, I decided to do something risky. I needed more information. I needed to understand exactly what Audrey had said in that meeting with the man with the briefcase.
So I called Ellen, my lifelong lawyer friend. Ellen and I met 30 years ago in a sewing class. She was always brilliant.
She studied law in her 40s. She specialized in family and property law. If anyone could help me understand the legal implications of what was happening, it was her.
«Eleanor, what you’re telling me is extremely serious,» Ellen told me over the phone, her voice full of professional concern. «If they are operating a lodging business without permits, without paying taxes, without your consent as the property owner, they are committing multiple felonies. Fraud, misuse of someone else’s property, tax evasion.»
«But what worries me more is what you mentioned about mental competency and nursing homes. Eleanor, does your son have any power of attorney over you? Any signed document that gives him authority over your decisions?»
I thought carefully. «No, I never signed anything like that. All my documents are in my safe deposit box at the bank.»
Ellen sighed with relief. «That’s good. Very good.»
«But listen to me carefully. If they are consulting with someone about declaring you mentally incompetent, it means they are looking for a legal way to take control of your assets. The process is complex and requires real medical evaluations, psychological tests, court appearances before a judge.»
«They can’t simply declare you incompetent just because. But if they have a corrupt doctor willing to falsify evaluations, if they have an unscrupulous lawyer who knows the legal loopholes, they could try it. And if they succeed, Eleanor, they can commit you to a nursing home against your will and take your house legally.»
Terror seized me. «What can I do, Ellen?» She thought for a moment.
«First, you need solid evidence of everything they are doing. Photos, videos, testimonies. Second, you need to protect your legal documents.»
«Make sure they can’t access anything. Third, as soon as you have enough evidence, we file a formal complaint. I’ll take care of the entire legal process.»
«But, Eleanor, you must be very careful. If they suspect you know anything, they could accelerate their plans. They could try something drastic.»
Her words chilled my blood. «Something like what?» Ellen paused for a second before answering.
«Like drugging you so you appear confused in front of a doctor. Like creating situations where you seem unstable. Like fabricating evidence that you can’t take care of yourself.»
«I’ve seen cases like this, Eleanor, and they are more common than people think.» I hung up the phone with trembling hands. Now I understood the magnitude of the danger.
I wasn’t just being stolen from. I was being prepared for a fate worse than death. Losing my autonomy.
My home. My identity. Being declared incompetent.
Being locked up in a nursing home while my son and daughter-in-law kept everything I had built. And all under the guise of legality. With documents signed by doctors and lawyers.
With a judge who would never know the truth. Friday arrived. The day Moses had marked as special.
From early on, I noticed a difference in the atmosphere. Audrey was more active than usual. She cleaned the entire house.
Changed sheets in all the rooms. Bought fresh flowers and put them in vases all over the living room. It was as if she were preparing for something important.
Robert arrived home from work earlier than other days. By six in the evening, he was already home. Helping Audrey with the final preparations.
At seven, the parade began. It wasn’t one or two couples like the previous days. They were groups.
The first to arrive were four people. Two young couples who seemed to be on vacation. They wore cameras around their necks and were speaking English.
Audrey received them with an impeccable professional smile. She showed them the rooms. She took the payment.
Thirty minutes later, another group arrived. Three middle-aged women with large suitcases. Then an older couple, maybe in their sixties.
Then two single men who seemed to be on a business trip. I counted mentally. There were eleven people inside my house.
Eleven strangers occupying every available corner. The living room had become a common area. I watched through the windows as the guests mingled, talked, some preparing food in my kitchen.
Audrey and Robert acted like hotel hosts, smiling, offering extra towels, recommending tourist spots in New York City. My house had transformed into a completely functional hostel. And I, the legal owner, was hidden, watching from the neighbor’s house like a refugee in my own neighborhood.
«I’ve never seen so many,» Moses murmured next to me. «This is different. It’s like a special night.»
He was right. Friday was the busiest day, probably because tourists arrived to spend the weekend. Audrey and Robert took full advantage.
I calculated quickly. If each person paid thirty dollars per night, they were earning over three hundred dollars just tonight. In a full weekend, almost one thousand dollars.
And they did this every week. The hours passed slowly. I watched the guests eat dinner, talk.
Some went out to walk around the neighborhood and returned. At ten o’clock at night, the lights began to turn off gradually. The guests retired to their rooms.
Audrey and Robert cleaned the kitchen and the living room. Then they too went to sleep. The house fell silent.
But Moses had told me to wait until midnight. That at midnight, I would discover everything. So I waited, every nerve in my body tense, my heart beating so loudly I could hear it in my ears.
Moses’ wall clock marked the passing of time with a constant, almost hypnotic tick-tock. Eleven thirty, eleven forty, eleven fifty. Every minute felt like an eternity.
Moses had fallen asleep on the couch, exhausted after days of vigil with me. But I was completely awake. My eyes fixed on my house, waiting.
Waiting for that something Moses had seen before. That something that would reveal the whole truth. And then, when the clock struck twelve midnight, my breath stopped.
The side door of my house, the one that leads to the backyard and that we almost never use, opened slowly. A figure came out. It was Audrey.
But she wasn’t alone. Behind her came out a man I didn’t know. A tall man, about fifty years old, dressed in dark clothing.
He was carrying a briefcase in his hand. The same type of briefcase Moses had described when he saw Audrey at the coffee shop. My heart started racing.
What was happening? Why was Audrey meeting this man at midnight? Why were they leaving through the back door like thieves?
They walked toward the back of the yard, where the old shed my husband used as a workshop is. Audrey took out a key, opened the padlock, and both entered the shed. The light turned on inside.
Through the shed’s small window, I could see shadows moving. They were talking. They were gesturing.
Audrey took something out of her purse. Papers, maybe. The man checked them with a small flashlight.
Then he took something out of his briefcase. More papers. A thick folder.
Audrey took them, reviewed them, page by page. She nodded her head. They seemed to be reaching some kind of agreement.
The meeting lasted almost twenty minutes. Finally, the man put everything back in his briefcase. Audrey turned off the shed light.
They came out. But instead of returning to the house, they walked toward the back fence. There’s a small door there that leads to the back alley.
Audrey opened it. The man left through there, and disappeared into the darkness. Audrey closed the door, secured the padlock, and returned to the house through the side door.
Everything had lasted less than half an hour. Silent. Secret.
Invisible to anyone who wasn’t specifically watching. I woke Moses up urgently. «I saw him.»
«I saw everything. Audrey met a man at midnight in the shed.» Moses got up immediately, still half asleep but alert.
«The man with the briefcase?» he asked. «Yes, it has to be the same one. They reviewed papers, documents.»
«They are planning something, Moses. Something big.» My neighbor rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch.
«It’s late. Or early, depending on how you look at it. It’s zero hours thirty minutes.»
«But now we know that there’s someone else involved. Someone who works in the dark. In secret.»
«This is worse than we thought.» I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. I stayed sitting by the window, watching my house as if it were an enemy building.
At dawn on Saturday, the guests began to leave. Some left early, others stayed to enjoy the full weekend. Audrey prepared breakfast for those who remained, acting like the perfect hostess.
Coffee, toast, fruit. Everything served with smiles and kindness. No one would have imagined that hours earlier, she had been in a clandestine night meeting with a stranger.
Robert left the house around nine in the morning. I saw him get into his car and drive away. Audrey stayed alone with the remaining guests.
This was my opportunity. I needed to get into that shed. I needed to see if they had left anything.
Any clue about what they were planning. I told Moses my plan. He tried to dissuade me.
«It’s too risky, Eleanor, if Audrey sees you.» But I was determined. «I have the key to the back fence.»
«I can enter through the alley without anyone seeing me. Audrey is busy with the guests in the front of the house. She won’t see me.»
Moses finally agreed, but insisted on accompanying me to the alley to keep watch. We left his house through the back door. We walked through the silent alley.
It was Saturday morning and the neighborhood was quiet. Most people were still sleeping or eating breakfast in their homes. We reached the back door of my property.
I took out my key with trembling hands. The padlock gave a soft click. I entered my own backyard like an intruder, my heart pounding against my ribs.
The shed was about 20 yards from the door. I walked crouched low, hiding behind the bushes I myself had planted years ago. Every step seemed too loud.
