I flipped through the notices.
“There’s a lien warning here.”
Dorothy nodded.
“They said if we don’t settle the balance, they may take further action against the house.”
She paused.
“It’s the house we planned to stay in.”
I looked up.
Her eyes had filled with tears, though she seemed determined not to let them fall.
“We thought retirement would be quieter than this.”
I didn’t know what to say.
I had come there because Carl believed their experience showed how the HOA had been operating.
But sitting across from Dorothy, the dispute stopped feeling like a collection of legal documents.
I could see what Margaret’s methods had done to people.
Not dramatic violence.
Not sudden catastrophe.
Just a steady accumulation of anxiety.
A letter in the mailbox.
Another penalty.
Another warning.
Another afternoon spent wondering whether a woman with a clipboard could turn a minor disagreement into a threat against the home they’d spent their lives paying for.
Gerald leaned forward.
“I only have one question for you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you going to close that road if you win?”
His voice was steady, but his hands were clasped so tightly I could see the strain in his knuckles.
I answered immediately.
“No.”
He studied me.
“Margaret says you will.”
“I know.”
“She says the lawsuit is the only thing keeping our homes accessible.”
“I haven’t blocked the road, Gerald. I don’t intend to. I’m defending my title because your board sued me.”
Dorothy wiped her cheek.
“But if the judge says it’s yours?”
“The road is already on my land. What the court decides is whether the HOA has the access right it claims.”
“And then?”
“Then I want a proper legal arrangement that protects everybody.”
Gerald frowned.
“You’d do that?”
“I don’t see any reason ordinary families should suffer because their board refused to check the paperwork.”
Dorothy reached across the table.
She didn’t take my hand.
She simply placed hers near it.
“Margaret told us you hated everyone in Cedarwood Ridge.”
I stared at her.
“I don’t even know most of you.”
“That’s what Carl said.”
I left their house angrier than I’d been after Margaret served me.
