Chapter 4 - The Paper Trail
Brooke’s face suddenly tightened with a different kind of terror. She took a step away from her mother and glanced nervously toward the counter where my paperwork rested.
"Wait," Brooke muttered, her voice trembling. "If Scott hasn't been working... then where did the twelve thousand dollars come from?"
The room seemed to freeze.
I turned slowly to face Brooke. "What twelve thousand dollars?"
Scott lunged forward, grabbing Brooke by the shoulder. "Brooke, shut up! Don't bring that into this!"
"Get off me, Scott!" Brooke screamed, shoving him back against the cabinets. A decorative ceramic plate rattled against the backsplash. "You told me you got an executive bonus! You told me that money was from your performance package! My car was about to be repossessed, Allison! He gave me twelve grand two weeks ago to pay off the lender!"
I looked at Scott, whose eyes were wide with sheer panic. He began backing toward the hallway, shaking his head. "Allison, let's talk about this privately. Please. Just you and me. In the study."
"Where did you get twelve thousand dollars in cash, Scott?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Your severance package was spent by December. Your personal checking account had four hundred dollars in it last Tuesday."
I tapped the screen on my phone, pulling up the second attachment from the title company email that had arrived that morning.
"This morning," I told them, "I got an automated alert from First Horizon Escrow. A preliminary title search was initiated on this property three days ago for a home equity line of credit. A request for fifty thousand dollars, using 1428 Willow Creek Lane as collateral."
Diane looked up, confused. "A home equity line? But you said the house was yours."
"It is mine," I said, zooming in on the application document displayed on the TV. "Which is why the title officer flagged it immediately when an application arrived bearing my forged signature, Scott’s name listed as primary co-borrower, and an attached bank routing number that linked straight to Scott's private account."
The room seemed to lose all air.
"You forged my name on a loan application?" I asked Scott, looking him dead in the eyes. "You tried to take out a fifty-thousand-dollar lien against my house?"
"I didn't forge it!" Scott stammered, sweat beading along his hairline. "I... I used a digital signature program! I was going to tell you! Brooke was in trouble, Mom needed help with her property taxes, and I knew you would say no! You're always so tight with money!"
"Tight with money?" I scoffed, tears of sheer rage finally pricking the corners of my eyes. "I paid for your mother’s dental implants last summer! I paid for Brooke’s honeymoon cruise two years ago! And when your sister’s financial irresponsibility caught up with her, instead of letting her grow up, you decided to commit bank fraud against your wife?"
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Brooke covered her mouth with both hands. "I didn't know, Allison! Swear to God, I didn't know he stole it from your house equity! He told me he was helping me out as a big brother!"
"He didn't just try to take fifty thousand," I said, scrolling down to the bank verification section. "He already secured a twelve-thousand-dollar unsecured bridge advance against the pending application using an online fintech portal. That wasn't an executive bonus, Brooke. That was stolen money."
