Chapter 6 - The Trap is Set
Two days later, my wife was discharged from the hospital and came home.
We had changed the locks on every exterior door before walking through the threshold. We had also installed a new smart security system with high-definition interior cameras and motion-activated lights.
While my wife settled into the bedroom with the baby, I sat at the kitchen island, going through our financial records to assess the full extent of the damage Eric had caused during his three-week stay.
It wasn't just the emergency cash envelope.
As I logged into our secondary savings account online, I noticed a series of small, unexplained wire transfers dating back over the last fortnight. Five hundred dollars here. Three hundred there. Totaling nearly two thousand dollars.
He hadn't just been crashing on our couch. He had been systematically bleeding us dry while pretending to look for a job.
My phone—which I had turned back on that morning—buzzed with an incoming text from an unknown local number.
“Mr. Ellison, this is Arthur Vance, your parents’ attorney. I’ve been asked to contact you regarding your brother’s upcoming arraignment. Your parents wish to settle this matter privately without involving the district attorney. We’d like to meet tomorrow morning at the downtown diner to discuss terms of restitution and a formal retraction of your statements to the police.”
I stared at the screen, a cold, bitter smile touching my lips.
May you like
They thought they could bully me into submission. They thought a lawyer’s letterhead and a family guilt trip would make me drop the hammer of justice.
I replied with a single word: “Name the time.”
