Chapter 4 - The Paper Trap
Thirty minutes later, Gertrude was screaming hysterically on the curb as Deputy Higgins supervised them tossing their suitcases into Brandon’s sedan.
"You'll regret this, Charlotte!" Gertrude howled, shaking her fist from the passenger seat. "You're ruining this family over a few lobster tails and a misunderstanding!"
"Drive away, Mrs. Miller, or I will arrest you right now for criminal trespass," Deputy Miller warned.
Brandon glared at me through the driver's side window, his eyes filled with pure malice before stomping on the gas and speeding down the street.
Inside, I immediately put on heavy rubber gloves. Skylar stayed safely at her aunt's house for the day while Evelyn, a private forensic investigator named Marcus, and I went through the house room by room.
What Marcus found in the guest room Gertrude had occupied for six months made my stomach turn.
Inside Gertrude’s closet was a portable paper shredder, a stack of blank cashier's checks, and a high-resolution scanner. In a hidden folder under the mattress, Marcus recovered forged bank statements, stolen tax returns bearing my Social Security number, and correspondence with a shady hard-money lender named Victor Thorne.
"They weren't just trying to take out one home equity line," Marcus revealed, spreading the papers across the kitchen island. "Gertrude and Brandon set up three separate shell companies in Nevada. They used your credit profile to secure over $120,000 in personal loans over the last four months. The reason they were so desperate for the house deed today was to cover the interest payments coming due this Friday."
"So if I hadn't frozen the accounts last night..." I whispered.
"If you hadn't frozen those cards last night," Evelyn finished, "they would have signed away your home equity today, defaulted on the Nevada loans by Friday, and left you facing bank foreclosures and destroyed credit before you even realized what happened."
I took a deep breath, looking around the living room that had felt like a prison for years.
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"They have a meeting with Victor Thorne at eleven o'clock at his private finance office downtown to try and push the physical documents through manually," Marcus added, checking his tablet. "Brandon thinks Thorne can bypass the digital freeze."
I looked at Marcus and Evelyn. "Then let's make sure Victor Thorne's office is ready for them."
