Chapter 14
I held up the manila folder. “Because if you’re looking for a bailout, you brought the wrong sibling to the door.”
The silence on the porch was so profound I could hear the wind tearing through the bare oaks.
“What are you talking about, Daniel?” Margaret asked, her voice cracking. She looked at Vanessa, then back at me.
“Tell her, Vanessa,” I said, stepping down the first stair. “Tell Mom why Rob’s assets are frozen. Tell her why the state dental board is reviewing his license for negligence.
Tell her about the two million dollars in leverage you took out against her house.”
Vanessa’s mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. “You — you can’t access those records. That’s illegal!”
“Public court filings and property liens are a matter of public record, Vanessa,” I snapped. I tossed the heavy folder onto the snow-covered hood of Rob’s Range Rover.
It landed with a definitive thud.
Margaret took a slow, agonizing step toward the car. Her trembling hands pulled the documents from the folder. She didn’t need to parse the legalese; the bold red numbers of the liens against her property and the zeroed-out balances of her trust accounts spoke a universal language.
“Vanessa?” Margaret whispered, the paper shaking in her grip. “My retirement account? The equity line?”
May you like
Robert scoffed, running a hand over his face. “Margaret, relax. It’s a temporary liquidity issue. We just need to move some capital around. If Daniel would stop being so selfish and help his family—”
“You stole from me,” Margaret said. The realization hit her body like a sledgehammer. She staggered back against the cold metal of the car. “You took everything your father left.”
