Chapter 6: The Missing Corner
The old fence was not the only thing in the wrong place.
A buried concrete footing ran several feet into Margaret’s property.
It had been poured during Denise’s landscaping project.
That explained why the drainage system had failed.
The contractor had built part of the retaining structure in the wrong location, then installed temporary power to support the work.
One mistake had created another.
And another.
By the time anyone noticed, the entire backyard arrangement depended on an incorrect boundary.
Margaret could have demanded immediate removal.
Instead, she asked the contractor to repair anything that affected her property and leave the rest untouched until the families agreed on a permanent solution.
The contractor accepted.
Denise apologized.
Not dramatically.
Not with tears or a long speech.
Just a quiet acknowledgment that she had been wrong to assume Margaret was responsible.
Margaret accepted the apology.
But she also explained that the filming had frightened her.
She told Denise that privacy mattered, especially in a person’s home.
Denise understood.
She had not realized how vulnerable Margaret had felt standing beside the pool with a phone pointed at her.
Tyler apologized as well.
He deleted the unnecessary portions of the recording and kept only the footage documenting the disputed area, with Margaret’s agreement.
The remaining video became evidence.
It helped establish the condition of the property before repairs began.
For Margaret, that was the strangest part of the whole experience.
The phone that had initially felt like an invasion of privacy had eventually helped protect her.
Still, there was one final complication.
When the contractor began removing the conduit, the electrician found a second line.
It was older.
Much older.
It disappeared beneath the patio and toward Margaret’s house.
No one had known it was there.
The electrician recommended stopping work immediately.
Margaret felt her stomach tighten.
For the first time, she wondered whether the mistake went back much farther than the recent landscaping project.
